Language Log

New book by Luke Waring:

Writing and Materiality in Ancient China:  The Textual Culture of the Mawangdui Tombs (Columbia University Press, December 2025)

Notable & Quotable: Lost in Woke Translation
‘Then a black Dutch fashion blogger wrote an article saying that Gorman’s work should only be translated by a black woman.’
Dec. 2, 2025

If we adhered to such a standard for choosing translators, where would it lead?

Since 2001, the Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies (SJEAS) has been playing an increasingly prominent role in scholarship on East Asia, especially language aspects. Sponsored since 2001 by the Academy of East Asian Studies (AEAS) at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea, SJEAS is an international, multidisciplinary publication dedicated to research on pre-1945 East Asian humanities. SJEAS presents new research related to the Sinographic Cosmopolis/Sphere of pre-1945 East Asia, publishing both articles that stay within traditional disciplinary or regional boundaries and works that explore the commonalities and contrasts found in countries of the Sinographic Sphere. SJEAS is particularly keen to highlight new research by scholars from China (broadly conceived), Japan, Korea, and Vietnam that engages with Western scholarship in this field.

(source)

The social media site r/PetsWithButtons (created in 2020) is full of interesting observations and questions. One of my favorites is "My cat has started to use “vacuum” as a curse word":

Basically the title. I gave him a “vacuum” button because the vacuum is stressful for him and I wanted to be able to clearly communicate that the vacuum was going to happen and let him know “vacuum all done.” He definitely knows what it means because when the vacuum is running he will push “vacuum” repeatedly and also add “nervous” in there too. But now he has started spamming vacuum after I tell him no, like he is using it as a curse word. For example, he will ask for “snackie” when we JUST got done with snackie and I will say “snackie all done” and then he will go spam the vacuum button. Yeah, ok bud, I hear you loud and clear that you feel “vacuum” about “snackie all done.” Or he snuck a lick from the end of my spicy curry dish (I did not authorize this, I looked away for ONE second), I could tell he regretted this (spicy), and then he went and pressed “snackie vacuum.” Yeah, ok bud, that snackie made your mouth feel “vacuum”.

I don’t know what I’m asking really, just commiserating. I guess maybe he needs a “mad” button?

"‘We’re a bit jealous of Kneecap’: how Europe’s minority tongues are facing the digital future", Stephen Burgen, The Guardian (11/26/25)

What does it mean to lose a language? And what does it take to save it? Those were the big questions being asked in Barcelona recently

The author tells us:

There’s an Irish saying, tír gan teanga, tír gan anam: a country without a language is a country without a soul. Representatives of some of Europe’s estimated 60 minority languages – or minoritised, as they define them – met in Barcelona recently to discuss what it means to lose a language, and what it takes to save it.

Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-seventy-first issue:

“The Multifaceted Saga of the Ethnonym Han,” by Sanping Chen. (free pdf)

"The hottest new AI company is…Google?", CNN 11/29/2025, shows a slide telling us that Google Search is "Bringing Generative AI to more people than any product in the world":

It's been a while since I've written about Chinese tattoos, although years ago they used to be a staple subcategory of our Chinglish-themed posts.

This intriguing one is too good to pass up:

As the English Wikipedia article tells us, the first English translation of Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu bore the title Remembrance of Things Past, echoing Shakespeare's Sonnet 30, while later translations used the more literal In search of lost time. But Proust's original title also echoes two idiomatic phases in French, one of which is entirely missing in English, while the other one is weaker– and I've wondered for a while how intentional those echoes were.

"War of Words: How Chinese College Students and Professors Survive the Thesis Season", by Aria Zhang, The World of Chinese (11/26/25)

Under the looming pressure of graduation and thesis defense, students and their mentors have resorted to academic sarcasm to cope with stress

I will make extensive excerpts from this article for a variety of reasons.  First of all, it speaks the truth about the unwarranted browbeating behavior of many professors who make caustic comments about their students' drafts, not to encourage them and help them to write a better thesis, but to make sure that the student knows who is on top and because it is easier to make negative criticisms than constructive remarks.

This is not about what you think it may be. 

Whenever I see the word "canting", as it has been appearing in recent Language Log posts, I can't help but pronounce it as pinyin (MSM) cāntīng 餐廳 ("canteen; cafeteria; dining hall; dining room; restaurant").  The two morphosyllables respectively mean "dining" and "hall".

• Mandarin

(Standard)

(Pinyin): cāntīng

(Zhuyin): ㄘㄢ ㄊㄧㄥ

(Dungan, Cyrillic and Wiktionary): цантин (cantin, I-I)

• Cantonese (Jyutping): caan¹ teng¹
• Hakka

  (Sixian, PFS): chhôn-thâng

  (Hailu, HRS): con^ˋ tang^ˋ

• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): chhan-thiaⁿ

  (Teochew, Peng'im): cang¹ tian¹

• Wu (Shanghai, Wugniu): ¹tshoe-thin; ¹tshe-thin

(Wiktionary; see Appendix for more detailed notes in various Sinitic topolects)

In case you've encountered this portmanteau, and wonder about its history, Merriam-Webster has you covered And NPR's Word of the Week featured it last week — Rachel Treisman, "Friendsgiving 101: A history of the made-up holiday and how to celebrate it", 11/19/2025:

Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday of November. But many Americans don't wait that long to share a fall feast with their loved ones — that is, if they celebrate Friendsgiving.

Friendsgiving is exactly what it sounds like: A gathering close to the date of Thanksgiving, starring many of its starchy staples, usually served potluck-style, with friends instead of relatives.

Think fewer dinner-table political debates, less travel time, turkey optional (more on that later).