Language

No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, 'Good food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave."
— Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

This page:
Language, generally | English Language, generally | English Language: Dictionaries | English Language: Grammar and Usage | Hebrew and Other Jewish Languages

Language, generally

• I Love Languages - A great resource for information on many languages (formerly the Human Languages Page)
• Ethnologue: Languages of the World - Reports on the languages spoken in every country
• Index Translationum - Find translations from one language to another (UNESCO)
• MLA Language Map - Generate maps showing where different languages are spoken in the U.S. (Modern Language Association)
• TravLang - Dictionaries, translations for major languages; basic words and phrases for many others (includes audio files)

Dictionaries: English and Other Languages:

• Dictionary.com - More than a dictionary, also includes thesaurus, usage guides, subject and foreign language dictionaries
• Glossarist - Glossaries and topical dictionaries in many subjects
• List of Dictionaries
• OneLook - Search multiple dictionaries at once; get translations into other languages
• YourDictionary.com - English-language dictionary, foreign-language dictionaries, subject glossaries, thesauri, etc.
• See also English-Language Dictionaries, below

Foreign-Language Dictionaries:

• Diccionarios.com - Spanish dictionary and translations between Spanish and English, French, German, and Catalan
• LEO English-German Dictionary - German-English, too

Translations:

• Yahoo Babel Fish - Translate a block of text in various langaguages
• Free Translation - Similar to Babel Fish
• Google Language Tools
• TravLang - Online translations in many languages. (You'll need to look below all the ads.)

Slang:

• Alternative Dictionaries - Slang from many languages, but don't take the usage notes too literally
• Maledicta - The journal for the study of "bad words"
• See also English-language slang below

Word Play:

• Figures of Speech - Definitions and examples of various types
• Forest of Rhetoric: Silva rhetoricae - All kinds of figures of speech, as understood by rhetoricians in the Renaissance
• Literary Cryptograms - Solve ciphers of quotations from literature
• Gigantic List of Palindromes
• Rhymezone

English Language

• Anglistik Guide - Gateway for Anglo-American language and literature

English Language: Dictionaries:

• Merriam-Webster Online - The original Webster's
• American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language - 4th ed., 2000 (Bartleby)
• Dictionary.com - Definitions come from the American Heritage Dictionary and other sources
• Dictionary of Difficult Words
• General English Dictionaries PolySearch Page - Péter Jacsó's page for searching multiple dictionary sites

• Word Spy - New words and phrases coming into the language
• Your Dictionary - Dictionary, thesaurus, glossaries of specialized fields, foreign language dictionaries

Abbreviations and Acronyms:

• AbbreviationZ [Stands4.com]
• Acronym Finder
• Acronyma - Acronyms and abbreviations in English and other languages

Dialects:

• Dictionary of American Regional English
• Dictionary of the Scots Language
• English Accents and Dialects - Audio files of regional dialects (British Library)

Etymology:

• Online Etymology Dictionary - A great resource
• Word and Phrase Origins Pathfinder - Web and print sources (Internet Public Library)

Historical Dictionaries:

• Early Modern English Dictionaries Database - Searchable version of many early glossaries of "hard words" and bilingual dictionaries
• Middle English Dictionary (U. of Michigan)

Slang:

• Probert Encyclopaedia: Slang - International English-language slang
• Urban Dictionary - Contemporary slang

Visual Dictionary:

• Visual Dictionary Online - Lots of pictures to help identify words (Merriam-Webster)

English Language: Grammar and Usage:

• American Heritage Book of English Usage - 1996 (Bartleby)
• Ask Oxford - Advice from the home of the greatest dictionaries
• alt.usage.english FAQ
• Banished Words - The annual list of "words and phrases banished from the Queen's English for mis-, mal-, or over-use, as well as general uselessness" (Lake Superior State University)
• Chicago Manual of Style - Questions and answers, sample citation styles — not the complete manual
• Columbia Guide to Standard American English - 1993 (Bartleby)
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves - Web page for Lynne Truss's best-selling book
• Fowler's The King's English - 2nd ed., 1908 (Bartleby)
• Mencken's The American Language - 1921, rev. and enl. 2000 (Bartleby)
• Sincerely Your's: Ow, Quit It - Sarah D. Bunting has managed to get all my pet peeves on one set of pages. If you are confused about language usage — you know who you are — be sure to click this link and this one.
• Strunk's Elements of Style - 1918 predecessor of Strunk and White (Bartleby)
• U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual
• See also Citing Electronic Resources

Hebrew and Other Jewish Languages

• Hebrew on the Web - How to use Hebrew letters
• Jewish Language Research Website - Hebrew, Yiddish, and many more
• Hebraic Section, Library of Congress
• Hebraic Collections: An Illustrated Guide
• List of Yiddish Words and Expressions