Death Sentence, The Decay of Public Language

TheAge.com.au brings us a review by James Button of the book, Death Sentence, The Decay of Public Language, by Don Watson, in which language is seen - to quote TheAge - as
"being mangled by the globalising forces of obfuscation".

As written by Button,
"The book charts how "managerial language" has infiltrated the English of politics, business, bureaucracy, education and the arts."

And as Watson writes:
"[E]very day we vandalise the language, which is the foundation, the frame, the joinery of the culture, if not its greatest glory, and there is no penalty and no way to impose one. We can only be indignant. And we should resist."

TechWeb Technology Encyclopedia

One of the best sources for technical terms - words - in the digital age is from The Computer Language Company which has a copyright to the TechWeb TechEncyclopedia.

Nicht-alle-Tage-Buch German translation blog

Transblawg has a link to the blog Nicht-alle-Tage Buch by Bettina Winterfeld (in the URL anitteb is bettina backwards) and Kai Becker which has the motto: "Sinn und Unsinn aus dem Übersetzer- und Computeralltag". Nicht-alle-Tage-Buch is a very nicely designed log with some excellent links in the translation area - but you must be able to speak German to read this blog.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Quotes - The Quotations Page

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Quotes - The Quotations Page:

"A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in colour and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr."

Occitania and the Occitan Language

One of the readers of my LexiLine site sent me a question for information about the Occitan language.

Here is a link to the best short general online site I could find on Occitania and the Occitan, including a map of the territory in which the language is spoken.

A fine scholarly treatment is found at the Stanford Rosetta Project.

See also
Folkworld
Provencal
The Occitan Language vs. the French State

Word Herders

We read at Word Herders.net: Word Herders:

"The stark contrast of black ink on white paper occasionally lead some to believe that words are static, passive animals, frozen in the lines of their imprinting. This is a misconception.
Words are mobile creatures. They come in a variety of forms - angry sputtering, sighed eloquence, sharp wit. Their crisp outlines belie their intricate, puzzling interiors. Words are reports, tidings, news, information. Rumors, promises, undertakings. Utterances, inscriptions. Maxims and proverbs. They prefer the fine line of inference, confusion, and misconception, all given with a steady gaze. They pay as little attention to the intentions of meaning as they do to the wagging discipline of taxonomy. "