Intro B: Useful Web Sites for AUE Participants
Donna Richoux
* = recently revised
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Contents of Intro B: Useful Web Sites for AUE Participants
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- Where to find previous postings
- Where to learn about ASCII IPA
- Learning English as a Foreign Language
- Audio Archives
- Word lists
- On-line dictionaries: general
- On-line dictionaries: Historical and Special Purpose
- Acronyms and abbreviations
- Sites on words and language
* - Writing and Grammar Guides On Line
- Encyclopedias & Search Engines
- British English
- Black English (African-American Vernacular English, Ebonics)
- Historical English, and English Literature
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Where to find previous postings
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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 1995:
http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
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Where to learn about ASCII IPA
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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
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Learning English as a Foreign Language
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Good entry points to the many resources on the Web are:
English as a Second Language
http://www.rong-chang.com/
Dave's ESL Cafe
http://www.eslcafe.com/
The Taiwan Teacher
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1979/links.html
English as 2nd Language
http://esl.about.com/?once=true&
ELTWEB
http://www.eltweb.com/
ESL Resources at Purdue University - covers common grammar issues
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/
1-language.com - The Comprehensive ESL Site
http://www.1-language.com
See also "Writing and Grammar Guides On Line," below.
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Audio Archives
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The a.u.e Audio Archive -- Listen to sound files of
speakers from England, Canada, Ireland, and the US saying
'Bother, Father caught hot coffee in the car park' and other examples of
differing accents. Reach via <http://www.alt-usage-english.org/>.
IDEA, the International Dialects of English Archive -- Large collection
of MP3 speech files from around the world.
http://www.ukans.edu/~idea/
Fonetiks -- sound clips of 6 kinds of English plus 9 other languages
http://www.fonetiks.org/
Pronunciation Voice of America - 3000 soundfiles of placenames & people
http://ibb7.ibb.gov/pronunciations/
University of Lausanne Phonetics Course -- pronouncing sounds
http://www.unil.ch/ling/english/phonetique/api-eng.html
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Word lists
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Brian Kelk maintains a Web page with pointers to numerous wordlists on
the net - for UK English, US English and a number of 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). The page has recently moved to:
http://www.bckelk.uklinux.net/menu.html
The Moby Project has large downloadable lists of words: Hyphenator,
5-Language, Parts-of-Speech, Pronunciator (American), Shakespeare,
Thesaurus, and American Words.
http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/research/ilash/Moby/
The National Puzzlers' League provides a search engine for words listed
in a number of dictionaries (including W2 and SOED):
http://www.puzzlers.org/secure/wordlists/grepdict.html
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On-line dictionaries: General
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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
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/
Macquarie Dictionary (Australian)
http://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/
Random House Webster's College Dictionary (no etymology)
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopdict.html
The Web of On-line Dictionaries, with links to many bilingual, slang,
hobby, science, etc, dictionaries:
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Word Net - includes "X is a kind of..." and "X consists of..."
http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn
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On-line dictionaries: Historical and Special Purpose
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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://catb.org/jargon/html/lexicon.html
Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/
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Acronyms and abbreviations
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Onelook (above) finds many initialisms. Two other searchable databases
are:
http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/acro.html
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Sites on words and language
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The a.u.e webmaster has arranged to link the indexes of many of these
sites. Enter your search word once at the AUE Website 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)
A dictionary editor answers word questions. Large archive.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/
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/
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://hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/maps.php
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/
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Writing and Grammar Guides On Line
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Grammar and Style Notes by Jack Lynch
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
Handbook of Style, by Merriam-Webster, Inc.
http://www.mae.ucsd.edu/mw/hanstyle.html
Guide to Grammar and Writing, by Charles Darling
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm
Tenses in English -- learn "progressive," "continuous," etc.
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/tenses/tense_frames.htm
The Online English Grammar, by Anthony Hughes
http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm
Verbix -- conjugate any English verb; other languages, too.
http://www.verbix.com/languages/english.shtml
Style guides for British publications:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/styleguide/
http://www.economist.com/library/styleGuide/
* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2941,00.html
Basics of diagramming sentences
http://www.utexas.edu/courses/langling/e360k/handouts/diagrams/
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/
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/
The Plain English Campaign: guides to writing letters, reports, etc.
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/freepub.html
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/
Zuzu's Petals Literary Resource: A large and well-maintained collection
of links on every aspect of writing. Look here to find style guides,
copyright laws, and much more.
http://www.zuzu.com/homelink.htm
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Encyclopedias & Search Engines
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Sometimes, language questions are tied closely to history, science,
geography, and other factual matters. Web search engines such as
MetaCrawler, Google, and many others can help. Each has its strengths
and weaknesses. For a list of 21 major search engines, go to:
http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/links/Major_Search_Engines/The_Maj
or_Search_Engines/index.html
There are also on-line encyclopedias and "reference books":
Bartleby -- search two dozen reference works simultaneously, both recent
and older. Includes Columbia Encyclopedia and quotation guides.
http://www.bartleby.com/
Encarta encyclopedia - parts are accessible free of charge
http://encarta.msn.com/
InfoPlease - encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, more
http://www.infoplease.com/
Biography.com
http://www.biography.com/
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British English
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The American-British British-American Dictionary
http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/
Estuary English - recent developments in England
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/home.htm
The Best of British
http://www.effingpot.com/
English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/
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Black English (African-American Vernacular English, Ebonics)
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African American Vernacular English (Ebonics) by Jack Sidnell
http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/aave.htm
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
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Historical English, and English Literature
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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
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/
A brief page on "Thou, Thee & Archaic Grammar" is now in the Grammar
section of the AUE FAQ Supplement:
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. NOT
ALWAYS WORKING.
http://www.bibliomania.com/
Mastertexts - another quick-search site, 19th & early 20th c. fiction
http://www.mastertexts.com/
Search E-Books - another literature search
http://www.searchebooks.com/
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/
Collins Cobuild Corpus Concordance Sampler - search for recent usages
http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/form.html
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This series of seven "Intro Documents" is intended to aid newcomers to
the newsgroup. The articles are posted frequently here, and are also on
the Web for your convenience, at:
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/
At that site, you will also find our full FAQ and other helpful
information.
Comments and corrections to these Intro documents should be emailed to
me. -- Donna Richoux