~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where to find previous postings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you suspect your topic has already been discussed, even though it is
not in the FAQ, please check for articles, following the appropriate
search guidelines, at the Google Usenet archive, which holds articles
since approximately 1991:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_search
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where to learn about ASCII IPA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ASCII IPA is a way of expressing pronunciation on Usenet. It is a
version of the International Phonetic Alphabet, using only the ASCII
symbols (basic keyboard characters). There's a guide to ASCII IPA,
including illustrative sound files, at
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/ascii_ipa_choice.html
A detailed specification of the ASCII IPA transcriptions scheme,
including tables showing the mapping to and from IPA characters,
can be found at
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/IPA/ascii-ipa.pdf
See also "Audio Archives"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Audio Archives & Phonetics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three pages at the AUE Website with speech files and links to more:
The a.u.e Audio Archive -- listen to speakers with varying accents
http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml
Other Sound files
http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml#sundryfiles
Audio References - more links to useful sound files
http://alt-usage-english.org/categorized_links.shtml#audiorefs
British Library archive of English accents, esp. Northern England:
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/
BBC Voices, collection of UK speech
http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/
IDEA, the International Dialects of English Archive -- Large collection
of MP3 speech files from around the world.
http://www.ku.edu/~idea/
Fonetiks -- sound clips of 6 kinds of English plus 9 other languages
http://www.fonetiks.org/
Voice of America Pronunciation Guide - Soundfiles of proper names
http://ibb7.ibb.gov/pronunciations/
University of Lausanne Phonetics Course -- pronouncing sounds
http://www.unil.ch/ling/page30184.html
Speech Accent Archives
http://classweb.gmu.edu/accent/
IPA Handbook, Univ. of Victoria - sound files for many languages
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/handbook.htm
ESL Cyber Listening Lab -- 100+ conversations with practice exercises.
http://esl-lab.com/
Phonetics site made by University of Iowa
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#
UCLA Phonetics Lab -- A Course in Phonetics
http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~
Word lists
~~~~~~~~~~
Brian Kelk maintains a Web page with pointers to numerous wordlists on
the net - for UK English, US English and other languages. Many are bare
lists of words but some have other info. There is also information on
word and letter frequency and on phonetic alphabets (Alpha Bravo).
http://www.bckelk.ukfsn.org/menu.html
The Moby Project has large downloadable lists of words: Hyphenator,
5-Language, Parts-of-Speech, Pronunciator (American), Shakespeare,
Thesaurus, and American Words.Available at www.gutenberg.org or
http://icon.shef.ac.uk/Moby/
National Puzzlers' League: "Our Collected Wordlists" & related
http://www.puzzlers.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=solving:wordlists:the_lists
Bookmarks for Corpus-based Linguists - links to word lists, archives and tools
http://tiny.cc/corpora
Webster's Second Edition (1934) list of over 200,000 words
http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena/astaff/reference/4.3network2/share/dict/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On-line dictionaries: General
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please look up simple questions of meaning and origin in a dictionary
before posting to the group. There are now several large, recent
dictionaries on-line to choose from.
Merriam-Webster Collegiate, 10th Edition, 1994. With US pronunciations.
http://www.m-w.com/netdict.htm
* Concise Oxford Dictionary
http://oxforddictionaries.com/
Collins Dictionary Lookup, plus related features
http://www.collinslanguage.com/
Onelook, which searches over 500 dictionaries at a single stroke.
http://www.onelook.com/
Dictionary.com, based on the American Heritage Dictionary
http://www.dictionary.com/
Cambridge International Dictionary, also Idioms & Phrasal Verbs
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
Encarta World English Dictionary
http://dictionary.msn.com/
Random House Webster's College Dictionary (no etymology)
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopdict.html
Yourdictionary.com . A single lookup provides definition, synonyms, and usage examples.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Word Net - includes "X is a kind of..." and "X consists of..."
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
Hyperdictionary -- accesses WordNet and other dictionaries
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On-line dictionaries: Historical and Special Purpose
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language
http://www.christiantech.com/
Webster's 1913 Revised Unabridged Dictionary
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/webster.form.html
The Century Dictionary, 1914 (12 volumes scanned):
http://www.global-language.com/century/
The Oxford English Dictionary is available for a subscription fee:
http://oed.com
Hobson-Jobson: Anglo-Indian Glossary, 1903
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/
The Jargon Lexicon, the Jargon File or New Hacker's Dictionary -
computer and hi-tech terms. Various copies on line including:
http://www.catb.org/jargon/
Online Etymology Dictionary -- includes many placenames
http://www.etymonline.com/
Slang dictionaries on the Web - Marius Hancu's list is here:
http://tinyurl.com/477xj
Urban Dictionary - slang defined by the general public
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
AlphaDictionary.com - multilingual dictionary: type a word and choose from 16 languages
http://www.alphadictionary.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Words and language
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looking for the origin of a colorful expression? The a.u.e webmaster has
arranged a combined link to the indexes of many of the sites below.
Enter your word once at the AUE Website Search field and get links to
each place the term is discussed.
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/
The Maven's Word of the Day (formerly Jesse's)
Large archive of dictionary editor answers to word questions.
http://tinyurl.com/yunh9
Common Errors in English -- Tips on hundreds of confusing words and
pairs such as affect/effect, adapt/adopt, advice/advise, etc.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html
Michael Quinion, World Wide Words -- Discusses new words and the
reappearance of old ones. Q&A section.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/
Evan Morris, The Word Detective -- Answers questions on origins of
colorful words and phrases. Large archive.
http://www.word-detective.com
John Lawler -- A linguistics professor gives masterful explanations of
how language really works
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue.html
sci.lang FAQ -- language and linguistics questions commonly asked
http://www.zompist.com/langfaq.html
Take Our Word -- the Weekly Word-origin Webzine
http://takeourword.com/
Wordorigins.org - Dave Wilton's Etymology Page
http://www.wordorigins.org/
Sharp Points by Bill Walsh -- real-life copy editing dilemmas
http://www.theslot.com/sharp.html
Atlas of North American English -- Maps and articles on regional
dialects in the US. Knowledge of basic linguistics advised.
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/
* Dialect Survey Maps and Results - Over 100 US regionalisms
http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/maps.html
Word2Word -- links to dictionaries, translators, language sites, etc.
http://www.word2word.com/dictionary.html
Fun with Words -- unusual words, lists of oddities, etc.
http://rinkworks.com/words/
Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
http://www.wordways.com/
Double-Tongued Word Wrester -- definitions, citations of modern words
http://www.doubletongued.org/
Science Fiction Citation Project - Help OED find words in SF literature
http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml
The Big Apple - history of words from New York City
http://www.barrypopik.com/
American Dialect Society ListServ - discusses words, phrases, etc.
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=ads-l
Australian Word Map - shows regionalisms
http://www.abc.net.au/wordmap/default.htm
LinguaFranca - radio show about language. Read or listen (or both!)
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/
After Deadline - NY Times columns on grammar & style
http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/after-deadline/
Karen Chung's Language and Linguistics Links
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/linguistics%20links.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing and Grammar Guides On Line
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guide to Grammar and Writing, by Charles Darling
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
Online English Grammar
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm
Grammar and Style Notes by Jack Lynch
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
Handbook of Style, by Merriam-Webster, Inc.
http://szotar.sztaki.hu/webster/info/index.html
The Online English Grammar, by Anthony Hughes
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm
The Guardian Style Guide (British newspaper):
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/styleguide/
Bartleby -- US style guides: American Heritage Book of English
Usage, Columbia Guide to Standard American English (1993) and Strunk's
Elements of Style (1916). Also, UK: Fowler, The King's English, 1908.
http://www.bartleby.com/
Chicago Manual of Style: FAQ and index (not the manual itself)
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/cmosfaq.html
English Style Guide -- recommendations from the European Commission
http://europa.eu.int/comm/translation/writing/style_guides/english/index
_en.htm
US Government Printing Office Style Manual
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/index.html
The Internet Grammar of English: modern grammar (word classes, etc.)
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
APA Style Tips - for academic writing, bibliographies, etc.
http://www.apastyle.org/previoustips.html
The Plain English Campaign: guides to writing letters, reports, etc.
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
Garbl's Writing Resources On Line:
A descriptive list of links about writing, and a style manual
http://garbl.home.comcast.net/writing/index.htm
Yahoo! Grammar & Usage -- A long list of sites.
http://dir.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Linguistics_and_Human_Languages/Lang
uages/Specific_Languages/English/Grammar__Usage__and_Style/
Grammar resources, listed at "English as a Second Language" website
http://www.rong-chang.com/grammar.htm
The Writing Center, advice on academic writing
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Encyclopedias & Search Engines
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sometimes, language questions are tied closely to history, science,
geography, and other factual matters.
* Wikipedia is where many look first, but be wary of errors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
InfoPlease - encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, more
http://www.infoplease.com/
* Biographical Dictionary - an excellent quick reference
http://www.s9.com/
Biography.com
http://www.biography.com/
Dictionary of Famous People
http://www.explore-biography.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Black English (African-American Vernacular English, Ebonics)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
African American Vernacular English (Ebonics) by Jack Sidnell
http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/definitions/aave.html
The Center for Applied Linguistics: Ebonics Information Page
http://www.cal.org/ebonics/
John Lawler on Ebonics: a statement by linguists, bibliography & links:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/ebonics.lsa.html
African-American History and Culture
http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/blackga.htm
Characteristic Features of AAVE
http://www.hf.ntnu.no/engelsk/staff/johannesson/111SoS/L09-O04.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Historical English, and English Literature
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word Safari: Megalist of Word Links -- History Section:
A good starting point with links to a number of sites on the
development, grammar, pronunciation, and literature of Old English or
Anglo-Saxon (example, Beowulf) and Middle English (example, Chaucer).
http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/megalist.htm#Jump3
Da Engliscan Gesidas - Anglo-Saxon (Old English). Includes sound files.
http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/index.html
I have not yet found a good site about "Early Modern English," but you
can use these two sites to search for your own usage examples:
Search Shakespeare sites
http://www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare/help/
http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/ (search single plays only)
Bible Gateway - Search the Bible (King James and other versions)
http://bible.gospelcom.net/
"Thou, Thee & Archaic Grammar" -- a brief overview by AUE members:
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/pronoun_paradigms.html
Sites for "Modern English" literature from 1700-2000:
Bibliomania - search many classic novels and essays simultaneously
http://www.bibliomania.com/
Search E-Books - another literature search
http://www.searchebooks.com/
Literaturepost.com - Google <site:literaturepost.com> to search texts
http://www.literaturepost.com/
Making of America - many books & journals of mid-1800s
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
Amazon.com: Books / Search Inside the Book -- search text of new books!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/10197021/103-6386191-42830
24
The On-Line Books Page -- thousands of works of literature that are
available for free download & search. Includes Project Gutenberg titles.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
Google Books - large number of scanned books, although erratic quality
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search
University Of Virginia's Modern English Collection -- electronic texts searchable by year
http://tinyurl.com/nv8skg or http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/
Schulers Books Online
http://schulers.com/books/
* The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) - Search word use from 1990-on.
http://www.americancorpus.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This series of seven "Intro Documents" is intended to aid newcomers to
the newsgroup. The articles are posted frequently in the newsgroup
and are installed at this Web site for your convenience, along with
a menu of links to the seven Intro documents.
At this site's home page you will find links to other helpful
information, including the FAQ.
Comments and corrections to these Intro documents should be emailed to
me. -- Donna Richoux