Languages, mankind, empires, the family – Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder

Real Academia Española contemplating eliminating accents

And they’re going descriptive, bit by bit.

The Nicaraguan and Spanish characters compared

Bizarrely honest or honestly bizarre?

Hide the ducks, the musicians are coming

From the DCVB, re pato: —Amagueu els patos, que vénen els músics!: ho diuen per recomanar prendre precaucions davant un perill imminent (Val.). Els músics hostatjats tenen fama de menjar tot quant troben a la casa. One recalls a barbecue gig where all the meat and beer was consumed before the 50-odd guests arrived in…

Son of a broker

A Dutch compliment becomes a French insult.

Is the anglocabrón longing for sun, sangria and sex a new phenomenon?

Blasco Ibáñez says that actually we have always thought “at all hours of the Mediterranean rim.”

Pan di Spagna?

A Sicilian says it ain’t.

Raphael tortures Aquarius, Matt Monro destroys Libre (subtitled)

Do Spanish speakers get more excited about “defective” accents than English speakers?

El gallito inglés / le coq anglais

Proud English cock, limp Latin hen: the binary opposition of English and Spanish fowls as a metaphor for the contrast between growing British military might and declining Spanish power.

Photo by <a href=http://www.drbizarre.net/post/el-gallito-ingles>Dr. Bizarre</a>, licence <a href=http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/mx/>CC 2.5 Mexico</a>

The lurch and fall of the Almería coast

Excerpts from Juan Goytisolo and Ramón Fernández Palmeral, with an epitaph from George Orwell.

Roddy Doyle’s niggers of Europe explained

Don’t claim national origins for yourselves without very carefully considering the possible consequences.