Cursing in Slovak and Hungarian for the beginner.

I fuck the world, indeed.

My ‘okinas aren’t quite right, but this Hawaiian prayer of resuscitation is for the Friendly Tentacle Monster:

‘Aina ka ai, hume ‘ia ka malo, ua ola!

Eat food, gird on the loincloth, [you] are alive!

This is slightly funny, as we had to read Mair’s translation of Zhuangzi for Roth’s course (not nearly as good as the Graham translation of the Inner Chapters, and I recently bought a copy for future reference. (As opposed to borrowing the crap out of Dan’s copy, which is not a lot less convenient than it used to be.)

Also, I find it funny that the 12th century just isn’t good enough for him, as far as ancient proverbs go.

Language Log: Phony Oriental wisdom in the 12th century
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Here’s that weird “anymore” again:

I went makeup shopping this weekend for the first time in a very long time, only because my lipstick was completely gone and I needed more. I am absolutely monogamous to lipsticks anymore.

144 Inches of I-Cord: Champagne, brownies and yarrrrn

Fascinating, but I want to know with what letter began the word for what the dude did in his pants.

Language Log: The earliest typographically-bleeped F-word?

My thoughts:

1. There are black linguists? (Just kidding.)
2. The usage boundaries of the n-word are fuzzier than many people seem to think. In many contexts (obviously contexts where my peer group is largely black) I’ve been off-handly called “nigger” (or, if you prefer, “nigga”) in the sense of “dude” or “person”; I’m not the only person of non-black heritage to be thus addressed. And in the same groups it’s not unheard of for people who are not at all black (latinos, frequently, or occasionally very ghetto whites) to also use the term, usually with few to no repercussions. Now, you won’t hear me referring to someone with that term, and I assume all the people in question are smart enough to figure out in what contexts that will fly and in what contexts it won’t, but there is a real sense in which the word is, for some people, anyway, and in some contexts acquiring a totally race-neutral sense.
3. Obviously, there’s really no linguistic argument that can justify assault.
4. Yes, the only reason I read this post at all is that the header was “What up, Nick—?”

Language Log: “WHAT UP, NICK—?”

It’s too bad that our Sanksrit invective is invented….

languagehat.com: SECRET LANGUAGES OF HATE.

Ma-be explained that the idea is to grow plantains and yucca and take the crops to town. “We can exchange it for money,” he said, “and exchange the money for other things.”

Money can be exchanged for goods and services!

Language Log: No concept of the future, no yuccas either