Le links to le cool language sites

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html

Style/writing/grammar guide: most of these are pretty dumb, but this one is quite sensible

http://web.ubc.ca/okanagan/creative/links/glossary.html

an excellent resource for basic terms in literary theory and criticism

Language Log which is hosted by U Penn:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/

Language Hat:

http://languagehat.com/

Speech Accent Archive ("Please call Stella . . . .")

http://accent.gmu.edu/

Etymonline (better than OED for English etymologies!)

http://www.etymonline.com

Rhetorical terms! I think there are better sites like this,but I don't know where now:

http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html

This page lists languages used in various european countries:

http://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/homean/index1.html

(link from Pim)

These links are for students of language rather than linguistics, by which I mean, they are not very highbrow or abstract or theoretical, but they are practical and may be a help to you when you are struggling with Swahili at 2 AM. I realize that in that respect they differ a little from a lot of the links posted above but as our forum surely has many who may begin learning new languages in the future blah blah blah.

http://tatoeba.org/
This is very hit-and-miss, very wiki, also not very useful once you are past the beginner's level. HOWEVER what IS interesting about this collection of simple multilingual example sentences is that depending on the sentence you pick, sometimes you can see several user-submitted translations lined up next to each other which can be very illuminating. Oh my god, I have just thought of the best party game, but I'll save that for another thread.

I'm not directly linking http://UZ-translations.net and http://GreyLib.net but if you need language learning materials (textbooks, novels in your target language, AUDIOBOOKS of which they have many in Russian, whatever) and you are not adverse to a little internet piracy, go Google it, it will be worth it. I have heard that it is/was somehow legal wherever they were based (probably before the sites opened to user uploading), but I don't actually know what country these sites were initially targeted at, as I do not read Cyrillic characters or know any Slavic languages.

Most of my other links are very language-specific so not generally useful, unfortunately.

uz-translations and greylib are based in Uzbekistan. But as this is one of those ex-Soviet republics, Russian is still very widely used there. For the web interface you can choose between Russian, Uzbek, English and Spanish. Descriptions of the books are usually in the language that the text is targeted at.

>7 PimPhilipse:

Oh good, thanks! I guessed Russian was probably one of the main options because whenever I look for materials there, it feels like half the things that turn up are in Russian, especially if I'm searching something more obscure (ex Egyptian hieroglyphics rather than Spanish). Too bad I don't know that language or I'd be set!

http://www.hotforwords.com/2009/12/14/mischievous-part-deux/

(link from Ganeshaka)

http://www.informalmusic.com/latinsoc/phrase.html#sp01

I love Latin, especially spurious and dog latin.

Hilarium est.

my ph. # Acwoom sperry two two 0

forvo.com amazing! useful!

For everyone who would like to brush up his or her Latin:

http://la.wikipedia.org

For example, from the article on Les Miserables:

In carcere undeviginti annos conclusus, Iohannes Valzean, captivus numerus 24601, ex carcere solutus, ad suam propriam correctionem beatudinemque laborat. Sua damnatio erat solum propter panem pro sua familia furtum, sed, post ex carcere solutus, charta flava, quae eum sicut condemnatum identificat et eum praeiudicatis opinionibus obicit, portanda est. Quia caupones ob chartam flavam eum non considerant de hospite, Valzean in via dormit. Benevolus episcopus Myriel eum domum accepit, sed ea nocte Valjean argenta episcopi furatur. Cum Valzean postridie capitur, episcopus inopinate ei subvenit cum dicit argenta ei donavisse et repente dua candelabra magis ei dat, suam sinceritatem monstrans. Episcopus Iohanni Valzeani mandat argento uti ad virum probum fiendum. Hoc est primum actum beneficii quod Valzean in undeviginti annis sentit. Haec contrafactio inter suam vitam anteriorem miserabilem et probitatem quam episcopus monstrat efficit unam epiphaniam in Valzean, qui postea eligit summa cum probitate vivere.

Sic mythistoria Miserorum coepit. Ad vitam probam vivendam Valzean subsequenter multos adversarios et obstacula debet confrontare et vincere. Inter suos adversarios principales est conquisitor Zavert (Fr.: Javert), qui in determinismo fortiter credit et sentit de Valzean: 'si olim fur fuit, semper fur erit'. Quod Valzean suum nomen commutat ad praeiudicatas opiniones vitandas, chartam flavam violans, Zaverti se venandus est. Difficile est Valzeani Zavertem vitare propterea praesertim quod Valzean debet suam filiam adoptivam Cossettam (Fr.: Cossette) curare, votum Cossettae matri ad filiam curandam suum conservans. Valzean etiam Cossettam vere amat. Omne fit apud tumultus circum annum 1832 Francicos, qui magnam partem habent in eo quod in mythistoria accidit.

Eritne Valzean felix sua vita summa cum probitate victa? Autne habet Zavert rationem de malefici natura Valzeanis? Praendetne Valzeanem? Quid de Cossetta?

On top of the article, there's a warning: Latinitas huius rei dubia est. Corrige si potes (the 'latinity' (correct Latin usage) of this case is dubious. Correct it if you can).

I bit this is the Wiki, Umberto Eco is using : )

Very cool!

> 16

My name is Bai Ang Lun in Chinese : )

Alone. Bad Company.

http://learnlouisianacreole.wordpress.com/

There's also a pdf version of this material: http://ifile.it/08oeb7m/kreol.rar

Here are some links to Chinese learning sites culled from the Learning Chinese Support thread. Thanks to Amaranthic for these.

http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/Itool/type_pinyin_with_tones.htm
Microsoft Word wèi shénme bù xǐhuān pīnyīn...?

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/ime.html
If your computer is a piece of crap like mine and refuses to install the goddamn Chinese font even after all your backbreaking and heroic effort - well, this one's for you.

http://zhongwen.com/gudian.htm
Classical literature made easy! Original text, but with translation AND definitions already found. Don't take the translations at face value as all writing is very subjective... not that I need to warn you all, of course; you all read the Translations thread. Not exhaustive by any means, but a good place to start.

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/converter-simptrad.html
Simplified-traditional converter. Speaks for itself.

http://www.popupchinese.com/tools/newsinchinese
I guess this is cute. Mouse over the characters.

http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/
Includes a little animation to let you see HOW the character is written, that is, what lines you should draw first. Check it out:

For anyone interested in South Asian Englishes:

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/ is an online version of Hobson-Jobson

http://dickandgarlick.blogspot.com/ - interesting, intermittently-updated blog.

Oh, and on the Chinese: I find some interesting stuff on http://laowaichinese.net/ and http://paper-republic.org/cat/language/#posts.

Excellent resources, Wandering_star! Xie Xie!

This article (http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/unravelling-gibraltarian-identity) led me to do a little bit of research on Llanito, the dialect of Gibraltar, which appears to be a dialect of Spanish with lots of English words as well as words from the Italian, Maltese, Hebrew, Arabic and Portuguese.

Many of the examples I've found online seem to be slightly exaggerated for comic effect:

- Caramba, hay una guerra de banderas en Barclays Bank of all places. Alguien told me que uno que se llama Franco quiere que el staff se ponga un Spanish flag, would you believe it, my dear?

Vocabulary list here.

I'd love to know more...

That reminded me somewhat of another language that I've been reading about lately, Maltese, which is essentially an Arabic dialect (I think it is descended from one, anyway) but has heavy influence from Italian, Sicilian, and English.

Maybe those of us who are proficient in Arabic have more thoughts on the matter, but I am studying Arabic right now and was blown away by how similar a lot of the examples I found were. There were many sentences where I understood everything just from my knowledge of MSA!

Maltese is, I believe, the only Semitic language written in Latin characters. Here is a basic course that has lots of example sentences for those interested.

http://aboutmalta.com/grazio/maltesegrammar.html

Going back to Llanito in #26, I know nothing about the language but that just sounds really cool! I hope someone has more information or insight!

So many great links here! If you wish to go to China to learn Chinese then you can you can check out this website to get more information about it: http://www.hutong-school.com/learn-chinese-in-china

There is a great Chinese language school in Paris that I recommend called CHINESE INSTITUTE. They have a free online booklet for beginners. I studied there a couple of months last year and improved my level quickly. All the teachers are native and very nice!
Here is the link for the free teaching material: http://www.chineseinstitute.fr/