Library & Cultural Services: Linguistics: Websites

Websites: Introduction

There is a huge amount of information available for free on the Internet, although the quality is variable. Some reliable sources are suggested below - but always make sure you evaluate what you find! You can find more information about evaluating sources on the library website.

General Websites for Languages & Linguistics

Glottolog
Collaborative project offering a very detailed listing of languages, each of which are linked to references derived from key bibliographies about the language
iLoveLanguages (formerly The Human-Languages Page)
A comprehensive catalogue of language-related Internet resources. The over 1600 links in the database have been hand-reviewed to bring you the best language links the Web has to offer. Whether you're looking for online language lessons, translating dictionaries, native literature, translation services, software, language schools, or just a little information on a language you've heard about, this probably has something to suit your needs.
Linguistics Resources on the Internet
Topically organised list of Linguistics resources on the Internet.
LINGUIST List
Major online resource for language and language analysis. Provides access to the searchable archives of over 100 linguistics mailing lists and provides links to many different Internet resources.
OLAC: Open Language Archives Community
International partnership of institutions and individuals who are creating a worldwide virtual library of language resources
World Atlas of Language Structures
A large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials such as reference grammars.

African Languages & Linguistics

African Language Materials Archive (ALMA)
Website hosted by Michigan State University providing African language literary materials, video recordings, documentary video, translation work, and bibliographies,
African Language Resources on the Internet
Amazing portal maintained by Columbia University Libraries that has links to numerous useful resources
African Online Digital Library (AODL)
Project by Michigan State University and partners around the world to build a digital library of African cultural heritage. Covers a really interesting range of written & spoken materials across a variety of African languages
Multilingual Learning
Project funded by British Academy/Global Challenges Research Fund, examines ways in which multilingual practices can be harnessed to enhance experiences of education in sub-Saharan African contexts (Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania)

See also the links to resources on the Africa section of the Area Studies subject guide, and links on websites of major libraries with teaching & research programmes in African linguistics, such as SOAS, Oxford

Corpus Linguistics

BYU Law & Corpus Linguistics
Brigham Young University projects that offer a number of specialist corpora, primarily covering US legal material
British National Corpus
100-million word collection of written and spoken modern British English representing a "unique snapshot of the English language". The data was collected between 1991 and 1994 and represents a wide variety of mostly written (90%) and spoken language.
Corpus of Contempory American English (COCA)
The corpus contains more than one billion words of text (1990-) from eight genres: spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, academic texts, and (with the update in March 2020): TV and Movies subtitles, blogs, and other web pages
English-Corpora.org
Useful links to some major English language corpora
Essex Corpus Linguistics Collective
Provides information about corpora at Essex, and links to corpus tools and corpus resources.
Positive Lexicography Project
An index with words in different languages for happiness
WebCorpLive
Produced by the University of Liverpool, this site offers a suite of tools which allows access to the World Wide Web as a corpus. It can aid research on how particular words and phrases are used, especially those which are too new or too rare to appear in any dictionary or standard corpus.

Endangered Languages

Digital Endangered Languages & Musics Archives Network (DELAMAN)
International network of archives of data on linguistic and cultural diversity, in particular on small languages and cultures under pressure
Endangered Languages Project
Originally a Google project, but now overseen by University of Hawai'i at Manoa, the ELP assists those confronting language endangerment by documenting, preserving and teaching these languages. Users can access the most up to date and comprehensive information & resources on endangered languages
Pangloss
Project from CNRS (France) to create an open archive of recordings of endangered & under-documented languages. Around half the recordings are transcribed, annotated and translated
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Many of the languages belong to indigenous peoples

Language Teaching & Learning (including Second Languages)

European Second Language Association (ESLA)
Publishes an open access journal: JESLA - Journal of the European Second Language Association
Language Testing Resources
Guide to language testing related resources on the Internet. Other useful features include a searchable index of articles published in the journal Language Testing, conference news page and the Articles and Reviews section.
Research in Primary Languages (RiPL)
Led by Professor Florence Myles (Essex), RiPL provides high quality video lessons & resources for primary schools teaching French or Spanish during the pandemic
World of Languages
Developed by the AHRC to revitalise Modern Languages and encourage multilingualism, this free website has nine online games for learners to encourage use of different languages. Designed primarily for children aged 10-14

Phonetics

International Phonetic Association
Phonetics information and resources (e.g. downloadable IPA charts and sound files).
UCLA Phonetics Lab Language Archive
For over half a century, the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory has collected recordings of hundreds of languages from around the world, providing source materials for phonetic and phonological research. This website, funded by the US National Science Foundation, aims to make the Lab's materials more easily accessible, serving the interests of scholars, speakers, and language learners everywhere.
Forensic Transcription Australia
Information on applications of the speech sciences in the legal sphere, provided by Dr. Helen Fraser.

Psycholinguistics

Language Games for All
Provides resources and readings for research about the use of language games and language games as a tool in psycholinguistic research.
Experimental Field Linguistics
Provides links to resources, tools, corpora etc. for fieldworking linguists and psycholinguists.

Sociolinguistics

American Dialect Society
Provides information on speech in the Americas (mostly Englishes but not limited to the USA). Includes links to journals, associations, dictionaries, information on American Englishes in general and individual dialects and dialect areas/phenomena.
Dialect & Heritage Project
National Lottery Heritage-funded initiative based at the University of Leeds, to present a snapshot of dialect in England today & assemble digitised collections
Green's Dictionary of Slang
Updated online version of the 3 volume 2010 edition (held by the Library at PE 3721.G7 on floor 5), the most comprehensive dictionary of slang in the English language
IDEA - International Dialects of English Archive
Created by Paul Meier in 1998, the first archive of primary source recordings of English dialects and accents from over 130 countries
Language Attrition
Website developed by Professor Monika Schmid (University of Essex), focusing on the process of forgetting a native language in immigrants and bilinguals – a linguistic development called ‘first language attrition’.
Language Varieties Website
Contains information about varieties of language that differ from the standard variety that is normally used in the media and taught in the schools. Includes pidgins, creoles, regional dialects, minority dialects and indigenised varieties.
MLA Language Map
Uses data from the 2000 census and updates from the American Community Survey. Detail down to zip code level
Sounds Familiar? Accents and Dialects of the UK
Jonnie Robinson of the British Library in London has put together this excellent website which 'captures and celebrates the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the twentieth century'. Includes a clickable map of the UK linking to audio files and notes on each variety.
Speech Accent Archive
283 samples of 'accented' English recorded from speakers of languages from Afrikaans to Zulu, with detailed transcriptions and notes on phonological features for each accent.
Word of the Year (Oxford University Press)
Each year the team at OUP look at particularly significant words that have entered the English language. A fascinating way of looking at language in society and its ever evolving vocabulary

See also some of the audio-visual resources listed on the Sociology subject guide

Translation and Interpreting

Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation
Free comprehensive bibliographic database covering literature in translation studies. Can be searched in different European languages.
Google Translate
Translates words, phrases, and web pages between English and over 100 other languages
Institute of Translation and Interpreting
Independent professional association of practising translators and interpreters in the United Kingdom. It is now one of the primary sources of information on these services to government, industry, the media and the general public.
Routledge Translation Studies Portal
Offers a wide range of online resources and teaching materials, links to key organisations and samples from our ground-breaking titles in translation and interpreting studies.