Vowels in American English are undergoing a major restructuring in which vowels can be produced in different places in the mouth, similar to the Great Vowel Shift. According to Labov, there are three major vowel shifts taking place in America (Labov et al. 2006): the Northern Cities Shift (BAT is pronounced as BAIT, BOT as BAT, etc.)[N.B. This is ( Read more... )

I just found my really super nice volume of Pushkin's love poems filled with his own illustrations the other day, which I was afraid I had lost for good.  So I spent the last half hour flipping through it instead of actually finishing unpacking and cleaning up and stuff like I should have been.  Just had to post a short one of my absolute favorites ( Read more... )

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them ;-)


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (haven't finished the series yet, but ( Read more... )

I plan on reading a lot this summer (it's something I can do at work between customers), and I'm coming up with a list of books I want to read.  If you've read any of them or plan on reading them, I'd love to discuss them.  Also, if you can recommend some more to me, that would be awesome.

• The King in Yellow, by Robert W. Chambers - go go gadget ( Read more... )

Also, kind of-sort of related to the previous post, I'm reminded again of this poem:

"Я вас любил: любовь ещё, быть может
В душе моей угасла не совсем;
Но пусть она больше не тревожит;
Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.

Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно,
То робостью, то ревностью томим;
Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,
Как дай вам Бог любимой быть другим."

- ( Read more... )

...aka Pushkin's rambling about how much he loves feet.  (I really love Pushkin, for those of you who don't know.  Like, I want to go back in time and do him.  And I am actually sad that I'll never be able to do this.  For some reason I just love the idea of an ugly poet.  Especially one that I still think is hot, mostly by virtue of his beautiful ( Read more... )