Tag Archives: language

“I apologize that this situation has been created. It was a systemic oversight, in which ‘gay’ was on a list of filtered words. Certainly it makes absolute sense for you to include this word in your review. This is a no-brainer for us.” – Walmart spokesman Ravi Jariwala, responding to JMG reader and It Gets Better contributor Mark King, who …

It turns out there’s another name for that Manhattan phenomenon commonly called “sidewalk rage.” While it sounds like an oxymoron, altruistic punishment is basically how social norms get enforced. So when you expel a huffy “Excuse me!” to the rude sidewalk clogger in front of you who has stopped midstride to check his BlackBerry, you’re trying to discourage behavior that …

In Germany, the way you say the time can reveal what part of the country you’re from.

Embiggen today’s map for the meaning of country names. Some are fairly obvious, some are somewhat amusing.

“What has the Arab world contributed except terror? The theocratic, repressive Arabic states do no significant science, no significant arts and culture. We already have a lot of infiltration of Islamic jihadist doctrines into our K-12 school systems. The teachers unions have ruined our K-12 schools. These unions are very left-wing and they encourage Palestinian terrorists to come to the …

(Via – Towleroad)

(Via Steven Thrasher @ Village Voice)

“Shakespeare would be rolling over in his g-word. When you ban a word, you make the word more powerful. All this banning that’s going on just makes (the hate) go deeper and deeper into the soul, where it festers. Let it it out. I want to know what you really think. I can handle it. It makes me feel like …

From the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, in its ruling that radio stations may no longer play Dire Straits’ 1985 smash, Money For Nothing: Like other racially driven words in the English language, “faggot” is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so. The Panel finds that it has fallen into the category of …

Last December the State Department announced that passport applications would begin using the terms “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” rather than “mother” and “father.” But predictably, anti-gay and Christianist groups have been screaming their heads off and today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered an amending of the planned change. The State Department said Saturday that Clinton had instructed the …

“The Tuscon massacre ghouls who are now trying to criminalize conservatism have forced our hand. They need to be reminded. You need to be reminded. Confront them. Don’t be cowed into silence. And don’t let the media whitewash the sins of the hypocritical Left in their naked attempt to suppress the law-abiding, constitutionally-protected, peaceful, vigorous political speech of the Right. …

“Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn’t hardly notice the other hipsters. Hipsters would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any hipster in that country. Strange hipsters would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. …

This might not play well with Mama Grizzly, who famously called for the firing of Rahm Emmanuel for using the word “retarded.”

In an effort to get school kids to read Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, a new version edited by a Twain scholar will excise the novel’s 219 usages of the n-word. Finn is rarely taught in public schools anymore due to discomfort with the word, even though most agree its use is meant as an attack on slavery. Twain himself defined …

Gothamist calls the above “the world’s most confusing map.” (Massive version here.) According to the authors, sub-dialects of the eight major regional dialects exist in many places like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, the Outer Banks, and perhaps most curiously, the Hamptons.

Polari, the inventive and colorful slang language once used by some British homosexuals, has been listed among thousands of languages headed for extinction. The slang, used as a code among some gay people when homosexuality was illegal, is on an online database created by University of Cambridge researchers. The free website has been developed by researchers at the World Oral …

“There are real antigay bigots out there, but they are fading in number and strength. The people who matter now are the persuadables who are struggling to believe they can make room for us on equal terms even if they cannot agree with our ‘lifestyle’ — people who wish us no harm but who are struggling to adapt old ideas …

The Global Language Monitor has issued its list of the top words used in English-language media worldwide in 2010. The selections are not necessarily new words, just words that suddenly gained heavy usage. 1. Spillcam2. Vuvuzela3. Narrative4. Refudiate5. Guido/guidette6. Deficit7. Snowmageddon/snowpocalypse8. 3-D9. Shellacking10. Simplexity Among the top phrases for 2010: teachable moment, ambush marketing, Lady Gaga, man up, Great Recession. …