Restores the power of speech to stricken Andalusians.

Some historical advice from an Irish perspective for Esperanza Aguirre on the pitfalls of attempting to demonstrate by symbolic means the virile and libertarian spirit of Madrid in the invented and regrettable conflict between it and doldrummed Barcelona.

But what was Rosa Díez actually trying to say before she so expertly inserted foot into mouth?

The Spanish, making progress with a backlog of untranslated English snowclones?

Galen is an indispensable early source for historians of the walnut, the hazelnut, the testicle, and so forth, but this does not explain why galen is used in Swedish to describe a disturbed person.

The precedents for, and some possible implications of, the Catalanisation of Barcelona’s cinemas. Plus some crowd-pleasing video of the Quebec language police in action. (Allez! Allez! Allez! And the hell with the economy!) All in somewhat fevered response to an article by Martin Dahms in the Tages-Anzeiger.

How would you describe the relationship of the Slav Francisco with his mother?

Why and how the 17th century Portuguese tropical medicine specialist, Aleixo de Abreu, tried to prevent proles from reading his cure for scurvy.

Is it a personal hiperandalucismo, or is there somewhere in Málaga where everyone speaks like this?

Wait, let me check that.

Fill in the gaps in this pasquinade on the voiceless velar fricative, which I found last night in Mesonero Romanos’ El antiguo Madrid:
En la plaza hay un cartel
Que nos dice en castellano
Que José, rey italiano,
Roba a España su dosel;
Y al leer este cartel,
Dijo una maja a su majo:
–Manolo, pon ahí abajo
Que me C….. en [...]

Or rather, how my grandfather seems to have been named after a minor railway station.

Is Mr Barbecue Bunny’s sardonic grin pre- or post-mortem?

The Danish-based trends site Ghits.dk is now using my most popular neologism (Google hit -> ghit) for both Google and Yahoo searches. (Dear Mr Larsen, any chance of a link back to the source of your inspiration? Kalebeul or FollowTheBaldie.com would do nicely!)

And they’re going descriptive, bit by bit.

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 their bus. [...]

A Dutch compliment becomes a French insult.

A Sicilian says it ain’t.

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

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