AUE: Links to Language Sites (Mostly)

On this page:
Almanacs Archives Audio references Collections of Web links Color charts Dictionaries Discussion groups Encyclopedias Fun with words Guides: Usage, Grammar, and Style	Humor Learning English Lexicons Measurement conversion Misc. language related Misc. not language related News Online reference books Online services Phonetic alphabets	Rhetoric vocabulary Spelling Thesauruses Urban legends Web-design utilities Web search engines Word lists Words about words
Notes about this page

Almanacs

Information Please

Audio references

American English vowel sounds
British Library Collection of 20th century (British) English accents and dialects, with sound files and notes on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.
Canadian Speech The raising of certain vowel sounds in Canadian English is illustrated with sound files.
DARE Arthur the Rat. Speakers from various parts of the United States recite "Arthur the Rat" in tandem.
An Edinburgh accent from the Gazetteer for Scotland. Recorded as a WAV file.
International Dialects of English archive.
IPA Handbook recordings. The recordings (WAV files) contained in this site are the words and text that appear in the illustrations in Part 2 of The Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, and which demonstrate the application of the International Phonetic Alphabet to a wide variety of sound systems of languages of the world.
Peter Ladefoged pronounces the sounds corresponding to IPA symbols. Click on a symbol on the IPA chart and hear the sound.
Phonetics course from the University of Lausanne - also available in French.
Russian alphabet sounds.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with sound files.
Voice of America Pronunciation Guide, with sound files. Mainly names of people in the news.

Collections of Web links

Analytical Q's list of color guides
Brian Kelk's list of word lists
Dogpile. An impressive collection of links. I want to spend more time exploring it and learning to understand it.
Editors' Association of Canada Among other things, links to grammar and style guides
ENGLISH online E. L. Easton. Materials for Teaching & Learning. A wealth of links to resources on many aspects of English.
Garbl's Writing Resources On Line Dozens of good links here
Megalist of Word Links
NY Times Editorial Room Search Index
Onelook has a list of links to dictionaries and to lists of links to dictionaries.
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. Resources for writers and teachers, links to search engines
refdesk.com
A Web of On-line Dictionaries Links to dictionaries in many different languages.
Worthless Word for Today (Has a list of links.)
Yahoo's etymology links
Yahoo's grammar, usage, and style links

Color charts

Analytical Q's list of color guides
Color saturations Various saturations, with hex codes, of primary and complementary colors.
Lynda's browser-safe colors The Browser-Safe Palette only contains 216 colors out of a possible 256. That is because the remaining 40 colors vary on Macs and PCs. By eliminating the 40 variable colors, this palette is optimized for cross-platform use.

Dictionaries

American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, from Bartleby.com.
British-American dictionary compiled by Mark Glicksman
British-American dictionary
Cambridge International Dictionary of English This may be the only available source for American pronunciations using the International Phonetic Alphabet. It's apparently a relatively elementary student's dictionary; don't look in it for "paronomasia", "syllepsis", "zeugma", or "allophone".
The Century Dictionary "An encyclopedic dictionary of English considered by many to be the finest ever produced in the US." - Oxford Companion to the English Language
dictionary.com This source provides definitions from a number of different dictionaries. In particular, it apparently accesses the complete contents of The American Heritage Dictionary Third Edition, including the discussions of Indo European roots that may be unique to that dictionary. You can go directly to the dictionary lookup, as illustrated by the following example, which will find definitions for 'enclitic': http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=enclitic
Famous People: Biographies for Over 130,000 Famous People
TheFreeDictionary.com English, Medical, Legal, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, a Literature Reference Library, and a Search Engine all in one!
Hyperdictionary One-step lookup for an English Dictionary, a Computer Dictionary, a Thesaurus, a Dream Dictionary, and a Medical Dictionary
Hypertext Webster Gateway Online dictionary
Information Please dictionary and encyclopedia
Latin dictionary online Copyright (C)1997 The University of British Columbia Mathematics Department Individual pages and projects are Copyright by their respective creators, as noted. Also, Java-based interactive version.
Macquarie Dictionary on line (by subscription only)
Merriam-Webster Online
Onelook automatically searches many dictionaries for the word you enter.
Onelook also has a list of links to dictionaries and to lists of links to dictionaries.
The Sharpened Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms A Dictionary of Computer Terms with Easy-To-Understand Definitions.
The Tech Terms Computer Dictionary where computer and technology terms are defined and explained.
Webster's 1828 dictionary Searchable.
Wordnet Lexical Database. In addition to definitions, this site offers synonyms, coordinate terms, hypernyms, hyponyms and familiarity.
WordReference.com Uses Collins dictionaries to provide English definitions and translations (French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
yourDictionary.com

Discussion groups

The sci.lang FAQ What is sci.lang for? Discussion of the scientific or historical study of human language(s). Note the "sci." prefix. The main concern here is with facts and theories accounting for them.
Unmoderated linguistics list An unmoderated mailing list for discussing all aspects of linguistics. So if you want to talk about language acquisition, philosophise about the nature of linguistics or just get your own particular pet peeve about language off your chest, this is the place.
The Word Wizard If you're fascinated by anything to do with words, then join our club, use our (FREE) services and have fun with other like-minded people.

Encyclopedias

Britannica 1 August 2001: Britannica is no longer free online. The URL that formerly provided the free access now offers a paid subscription.
Electric Library presents Encyclopedia.com
Information Please dictionary and encyclopedia

Fun with words

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Since 1982 the English Department at San Jose State University has sponsored the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.
Clichés The Book of Clichés
A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia, by Jeff Miller
The Eggcorn Database An eggcorn is an unusual spelling of a particular kind, such as free reign (instead of free rein) or hone in on (instead of home in on).
Fun with Words from RinkWorks.
Generate random sentences: The web economy bullshit generator, the automatic press release generator, and the Postmodernism generator
Pronunciation tips Have fun with quizzes on the use of the SAMPA ASCII IPA alphabet.
Word-Origin Game In this game you'll be presented with 10 randomly selected word origin or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible explanations for its origin will be presented.

Guides: Usage, Grammar, and Style

Anthony Hughes' on line English Grammar
The Apostrophe Protection Society Concise rules for the use of the apostrophe, and pictures showing British examples of misuse.
Common Errors in English
English Grammar by Jennifer Frost
Grammar and Style Notes by Jack Lynch
The Guardian Style Guide
The Internet Grammar of English: modern grammar (word classes, etc.)
Language helpUp-to-date and very extensive language help from Ruth Vilmi in Helsinki
Sentence Sense. Evelyn Farbman and Charles Darling, Capital Community College, Hartford, Connecticut
The Times (London) Style Guide
The Slot a spot for copy editors. Style guide
Strunk and White, Elements of Style, 1918.
Vocabula

Humor

Bushisms a collection of Bush garblings with citations of when and where they occured at

Learning English

Dave's ESL Cafe for people learning or teaching English as a second language. Various courses for pay.
ELT Web, English Language Teaching, a variety of resources.
Irregular English Verbs, Lists and tools for learning.
Language help Up-to-date and very extensive language help from Ruth Vilmi in Helsinki
Teachingfish.com "A full-service ESL web site which offers free teaching resources, an online English grammar, web boards, a job finder service, ESL games and activities, teaching tips and articles on ESL teaching."

Lexicons

Financial Terms
The Jargon File A comprehensive compendium of hacker slang illuminating many aspects of hackish tradition, folklore, and humor
Net lingo: A "Best of the Web" site. Among other things, a place to look up computer terms and net jargon.
Netscape Communicator Glossary
Rhetoric vocabulary
Slang terms by city; many cities.
Webopedia A Glossary of Computer Oriented Abbreviations and Acronyms

Measurement conversion

Measurement units Russ Rowlett's discussions and definitions of measurement units
National Institute of Standards and Technology General Tables of Units of Measurement. Appendix C of NIST Handbook 44: Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices.

Miscellaneous, language related

Accents in the UK
Anglo-Saxon language and culture "Welcome to the home of Ða Engliscan Gesiþas... ...the society for people interested in all aspects of Anglo-Saxon language and culture."
Canadian words (extracts from books by Bill Casselman)
The Canterbury Tales with hypertext glossary
The Dictionary and Glossary Webring Nothing to do with dictionaries and glossaries. Some pages unreachable.
Language translation Translations to and from any of several languages.
Liverpool accents, comments about Scouse from The Guardian.
The Metaverse, by Mark Rosenfelder
Oxford English Dictionary Home Page
Phonological Atlas of North America The Phonological Atlas of North America is created by the Telsur Project at the Linguistics Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Telsur is a telephone survey of the major urbanized areas of the U.S. and Canada, supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Plain English Campaign Plain English Campaign is an independent UK-based organisation which fights to promote the use of plain English and to stamp out all forms of gobbledygook - legalese, small print and bureaucratic language. The Campaign is funded by its professional services. These include editing, writing, design and training in plain English for many of the UK's largest companies, as well as government departments and local authorities.
refdesk.com
The Scots Language This site is essentially an introduction to written non-regional Traditional Scots.
Scouse, comments from the Guardian about Liverpool accents.
Yet another English Language FAQ.

Miscellaneous, not language related

AnyWho Phone numbers and addresses for millions of people.
AtomTime98 Set your system time to agree with the atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado.
CIA World Factbook
Country codes with links to flags, based on International Standard ISO 3166 Codes. Hosted by 'Network Startup Resource Center at the University of Oregon'
Ebert Movie Files The Ebert Archives contain Roger Ebert's movie reviews since 1985.
Eric's Treasure Trove quick answers to math questions, especially ones of definition and history. I found here detailed step-by-step instructions for solving a polynomial equation using Horner's Method. Now (010703) all I find is a notice to the effect that the site has been discontinued because of a copyright lawsuit.
The Internet Movie Database An Amazon.com company
Internet FAQ Consortium Select 'FAQ Authors' in the left-hand frame for help on writing a FAQ and getting it installed at news.answers. Select 'Search FAQs' in the left-hand frame to search the contents of thousands of FAQs for any string.
Liszt the mailing list directory
Los Angeles Public Library Catalog
Mapquest Maps and much more.
News of the Weird
Search Engine Watch
Universal Postal Union
Virus catalog by Symantec.
Virus hoaxes listed by Symantec.
Web Gallery of Art The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods (1150-1750), currently con over 6,000 reproductions.
White House web site - Full texts of speeches and radio addresses.
The World Clock Current local times around the world (Standard version)

News

Christian Science Monitor
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Orange County Register
Oregonian
Salt Lake Tribune
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
The Wire, News from the Associated Press

Online reference books

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1894 ed
Elements of Style by William Strunk
Familiar quotations from Project Bartleby
The Oxford Text Archive Online books
xrefer, "the web's reference engine". July 2003: xrefer is no longer free. The URL now offers a paid subscription.

Online services

Anagram Genius Give it a string and your e-mail address; it e-mails an anagram of the string to you.
Ask a Linguist Ask-A-Linguist is a service provided by The LINGUIST List, an Internet network for professional linguists. Although the list itself is restricted to messages relating to linguistic research, many LINGUIST List members are interested in language-related questions of all kinds; and a number of these have volunteered to staff this page. Ask-A-Linguist is designed to be a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and get the response of a panel of professional linguists.
Lydbury English Centre - On Line Grammar Home Page
Text analyser Enter text; it analyzes it
Wordsmith.Org Various word-related services by e-mail

Phonetic alphabets

Another ASCII IPA reference, with comparisons to other systems. Includes a side-by-side tabulation of IPA and the notation used in five ASCII IPA systems, including Kirshenbaum and SAMPA.
HTML version of Evan Kirshenbaum's IPA FAQ
PDF version of Evan Kirshenbaum's IPA FAQ
The International Phonetic Association
- Cassette or CD with sounds of IPA symbols
- Diacritics chart
- Full IPA chart
- Nonpulmonic-consonants chart
- Other-symbolschart
- Pulmonic-consonants chart
- Suprasegmentals chart
- Tones & Word accents chart
- Vowels chart
Pronunciation tips Practice using the SAMPA ASCII IPA alphabet.
SAMPA (Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) computer readable phonetic alphabet. 'It was originally developed under the ESPRIT project 1541, SAM (Speech Assessment Methods) in 1987-89 by an international group of phoneticians, [...]'
SAMPA for American English by J. C. Wells
SIL IPA Fonts are scalable outline fonts for both Macintosh and Windows systems.

Rhetoric vocabulary

For a thorough discussion of 'chiasmus' and comparisons of 'chiasmus' with related terms, see chiasmus.com, 'A Web Site for Word, Language, and Quotation Lovers, Created by Dr. Mardy Grothe'.
Figures of Speech Used in the Bible, E.W. Bullinger, London, 1898
For a really long list of terms, with definitions, see Silva Rhetoricae.
A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices by Robert Harris.
Linguistic Phenomena/Devices
Mark Israel's list of language terms.
Rhetorical Toolbox: Terms of Style and Descriptive Language. This site is no longer available. However, you may email the author, who is willing to send you the files.
Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples, a site created by Ross Scaife
skb list o' nifty words, with definitions, from S. Baum Dept. of Oceanography TAMU.

Spelling

Spelling Reform And The Real Reason It's Impossible by Justin Rye. "Clearing away 13 bad arguments against reform."

Thesauruses

WordNet - a Lexical Database for English. The word "thesaurus" only begins to connote the sort of work that WordNet is. To fully appreciate it, you need to spend some time with it.

Urban legends

The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends Reference Pages

Web-design utilities

Make A Website by clicking a mouse and typing a few sentences
HTML5 Beginner's Guide, by Robert Mening
HTML-Kit is a free and easy to use Windows program designed to help HTML authors to edit, format, lookup help, validate, preview and publish web pages.
HTML advice from Lynda
W3C HTML Validation Service It checks HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML and XHTML Recommendations and other HTML standards.
World Wide Web Consortium, all about it.

Web search engines

Word lists

British National Corpus
Word lists and phonetic alphabets

Words about words

A bit about words by Julian Burnside (Click on "Language Page", then "Articles about words and language".)
'Chiasmus', an exhaustive discussion
Forthright's Phrontistery Welcome to the Phrontistery! I'm Forthright, your host as you search this site, which is academic in appearance and focus but which, I think, has lots of stuff for anyone generally interested in historical and linguistic topics, English language words and word-lists, etymology, prehistory, or social issues in general.
John Lawler's discussions of frequently asked AUE questions
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Online Etymology Dictionary
Random House's Maven's Word of the Day
Vocabula
Wilton's Etymology Page
A Word a Day Anu Garg's 'A.Word.A.Day'
Word Detective by Evan Morris
Word Exchange Collins page promotes discussion on the meanings of words, allows dictionary searches, and even allows you to suggest new words for Collins dictionaries.
Word Spy
World Wide Words by Michael B. Quinion
Worthless Word for Today (Has a list of links.)
Yet Another English Language FAQ

Notes

This page was adapted by Bob Cunningham from the Language Resources list in Markus Laker's AUE Resources package. Bob writes:

"I've partitioned the list into categories. Within each category all links have been alphabetized, with leading 'a's and 'the's being ignored. Some language-related links have been left uncategorized, either because they seemed too difficult to categorize or because I haven't yet made a determined effort to categorize them. Some links that Markus described as having 'nothing to do with language' have been left as a group."

Links to Language Sites (Mostly)