Languages

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Learning Languages

ASL University: American Sign Language: Free lessons for words, phrases, and conversations. Videos require the Adobe Flash player. To look up the sign for a word, select the first letter of the word at the top of their page, then scroll down on the left panel to find the word and click on it to see how it is signed.
BBC: Languages: Courses in French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Italian, and Chinese as well as essentials in 36 other languages including Japanese, Albanian, Danish, Polish and Russian.
ESL: English as a Second Language: English grammar (basic to advanced), free online lessons/courses, training materials/lesson plans, vocabulary and reading comprehension exercises, quizzes and tests, and more. From About.com.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World: "An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world's 6,912 known living languages."
FSI Language Courses: Audio and related materials for learning foreign languages. From the Foreign Services Institute, U.S. Department of State.
I Love Languages(formerly "The Human Language Page"): Comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources
LiveMocha: "Learn languages online for free at Livemocha. Choose from courses in over 35 languages and learn at your own pace. Learning languages online with Livemocha is more effective and fun than learning with a CD-ROM because you get to practice what you learn with native speaker."
Mango Languages: With free registration, website provides access to some online language lessons in English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, German, and Italian.
Modern Language Association Language Map: View and compare color coded maps of the United States as a whole or by each state. Bar graphs can be created by state, zip code, town, city or county.
OmniGlot: A Guide to Written Language: Find alphabets currently in use as well as decorative and religious alphabets.
Speech Accent Archive: "The speech accent archive uniformly presents a large set of speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds. Native and non-native speakers of English read the same paragraph and are carefully transcribed. The archive is used by people who wish to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers." From George Mason University.
Tell Me More: Online language learning program available to Middletown Thrall Library card holders.

Linguistics and Studies of Languages

Global Language Monitor: "Global Language Monitor (GLM) documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English."
Introduction to Linguistics: From the University of Kassel, Germany.
Language and Linguistics: "Common to all humans, language is nonetheless complex. How do languages develop and change? What happens when one is lost? What about sign languages? Linguists explore these questions and more." Includes introductory information on dialects, endangered languages, and sign language. Provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Adobe Flash required for some parts.
Lexicon of Linguistics: Search or browse. From the Utrecht institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University.
Linguistics and Semantics: Includes lessons on Phonetics and Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Pragmatics, Textual Linguistics, and Poetry. Note: Lesson links appear in the center of the page (please be aware of ad links at right side of page).
The Modern Language Association Language Map: A Map of Languages in the United States: "The MLA Language Map is intended for use by students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning about the linguistic and cultural composition of the United States. The MLA Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and three groups of less commonly spoken languages in the United States."