When a prelate objected to his Latin, Sigismund I is said to have declared "Ego sum Rex Romanorum, et supra grammaticam". The Holy Roman Emperor was no linguist, but this simple idea —that linguistic rules are socially made, and that the exercise of social power is often carried out in the linguistic arena— is an essential part of modern sociolinguistics and informs many other fields. This blog chronicles, with no ambitions of comprehensiveness, my wanderings in them. Read more...