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

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World - Reports on the languages spoken in every country
• I Love Languages - A great resource for information on many languages (formerly the Human Languages Page)
• FSI Language Courses - Courses originally developed for the U.S. State Dept. (text and audio files)
• Index Translationum - Find translations from one language to another (UNESCO)
• Linguist List - Directory of sites in linguistics
• 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:

See also

• English-Language Dictionaries, below
• Dictionary.com - More than a dictionary, also includes thesaurus, usage guides, subject and foreign language dictionaries
• Glossarist - Glossaries and topical dictionaries in many subjects
• Lexicool - Specify two languages and the type of dictionary you want, and Lexicool recommends some online choices
• List of Dictionaries
• OneLook - Search multiple dictionaries at once; get translations into other languages
• WordReference - Translations between English and several other languages
• YourDictionary.com - English-language dictionary, foreign-language dictionaries, subject glossaries, thesauri, etc.

Foreign-Language Dictionaries:

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

Translations:

• Google:
• Google Translate
• Google Language Tools
• Yahoo Babel Fish - Translate a block of text in various langaguages
• Bing Translator (Microsoft)
• Free Translation - Similar to Babel Fish
• SYSTRANet - "Your free online translator"
• TravLang - Online translations in many languages. (You'll need to look below all the ads.)
• WorldLingo - Guide to human and online translation services

Directories of Translation Services

• Translation resources on the Web: A guide to accurate, free sites, College and Research Libraries News, June 2009
• Please Translate That for Me by Paula J. Hane, ITI News Break, Sept. 3, 2009

Other Scripts:

• Gate2Home: Virtual Keyboard - Lets you type in other languages, especially those that use non-Latin scripts
• KeymanWeb Virtual Online Keyboard - In my experience, this one works better for cutting and pasting Hebrew
• Magictyper - Type in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Urdu, or Persian using any keyboard

Slang:

See also

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

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
• Rhymes.net
• Rhymezone

English Language

• Anglistik Guide - Gateway for Anglo-American language and literature
• World Wide Words - "Michael Quinion writes on international English from a British viewpoint"

English Language: Dictionaries:

• Merriam-Webster Online - The original Webster's
• Dictionary.com - Definitions come from the American Heritage Dictionary and other sources
• General English Dictionaries PolySearch Page - Péter Jacsó's page for searching multiple dictionary sites

• Wordnik - Standard words and new words, with definitions, etc., but also examples drawn from the Web
• Wordsmyth - Dictionary, reverse search, anagram solver, crossword solver, and more
• Your Dictionary - Dictionary, thesaurus, glossaries of specialized fields, foreign language dictionaries

Abbreviations and Acronyms:

• Abbreviations.com
• Acronym Finder
• Acronyma - Acronyms and abbreviations in English and other languages

Dialects:

• Dictionary of American Regional English
• Dictionary of the Scots Language
• American English Dialect Recordings (Library of Congress)
• English Accents and Dialects - Audio files of regional dialects (British Library)
• Speech Accent Archive - Recordings of native and non-native English speakers reading a paragraph

Etymology:

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

Historical Dictionaries:

• Lexicons of Early Modern English - Searchable version of many early glossaries of "hard words" and bilingual dictionaries. (Ignore the login and go directly to Search; some features require a subscription.) (LEME)
• Middle English Dictionary (U. of Michigan)

New Words:

• Word Spy - New words and phrases coming into the language

Rare Words, Hard Words:

• Dictionary of Difficult Words
• Luciferous Logolepsy - "Dragging obscure words into the light of day"

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:

See also

• Citing Electronic (and Non-Electronic) Resources
• Ask Oxford - Advice from the home of the greatest dictionaries
• alt.usage.english FAQ
• Apostrophe Protection Society - Defending the language against misplaced, omitted, or extraneous apostrophes
• 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
• Common Errors in English Usage - Quick and easy-to-understand tips
• Conjugation.com - Gives forms of English verbs
• Fowler's The King's English - 2nd ed., 1908 (Bartleby)
• Mencken's The American Language - 1921, rev. and enl. 2000 (Bartleby)
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) - Writing advice from getting started, to punctuation and grammar, to citing references
• 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)
• Another view: 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice
• U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 2008

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