SIL International's Glossary of Linguistic Terms

Gives clear, precise definitions of a variety of linguistic terms in all linguistic categories, explains differences in similar terms, provides helpful examples of each term.

SIL International's Ethnologue: Languages of the World

An online reference encyclopedia that provides up to date information on all of the worlds languages, including what family they are from, where they are spoken, and approximately how many people speak them natively.

Linguistic Society of America's Essays on Linguistic Fields

Conatins essays on many linguistic fields, including applied linguistics, variation and change, sociolinguistics, endangered languages, language and the brain, and prescriptivism.

alphaDictionary.com's Reference Shelf: Dr. Goodword

Includes many articles with information on topics ranging from trends of the English language to English dialects.

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General

Kevin Russell's Phonetics Website at the University of Manitoba

Provides a table of contents with explanations of a variety phonetic concepts, including: phonetic transcriptions of English, vocal anatomy, properties of consonants and vowels, acoustic phonetics, general phonetics.

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Site: Phonology

Provides explanation of basic concepts of phonetics as well as explanation of terminology.

The Speech Accent Archive at George Mason University

A large database of speech samples taken from speakers of various dialects of English. Audio samples are available for your listening pleasure as well as phonetic transcriptions. Additionally phonemic inventories of various languages are also available in chart form.

The Varieties of English by the Language Samples Project at the University of Arizona

Explains and differentiates between seven different major varieties of English, provides background information on phonetics and phonology (as well as other topics), includes articulation and transcription exercises, as well as exercises particular to the different varieties of English

Daniel C. Hall's Interactive Sagittal Section at the University of Toronto

Provides the visitor with a manipulatable model of the human vocal tract, showing a visual representation of the different positions of the tongue, lips, and uvula. Based on the different settings one chooses the corresponding IPA transcription is provided.

Phonetics: the sounds of spoken language at The University of Iowa

Contains a flash animation presentation of a side view of the vocal tract during consonant and vowel articulations in American English, German, and Spanish. Additionally they also offer a front view of a video of the mouth during articulation of each sound and articulatory descriptions of each sound.

The Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Association's International Phonetic Chart at Omniglot.com

Provides a complete chart of phonemes, including consonants, vowels, common diacritics as well as tone and word accent diacritics. Additionally, the website offers overviews of different language's writting systems and their relationship to speech sounds.

Kevin Russell's Transcription Exercises at the University of Manitoba

Offers transcription practice exercises for one-syllable words, two-syllable words, and some longer words.

The Sounds of American and British English

Peter Ladefoged's Course in Phonetics at UCLA

As well as allowing the user to hear a variety of sounds the site identifies differences in American and British English, contains x-ray videos of a human head's profile while pronouncing words, and contains dozens of helpful exercises; including exercises on identifying vocal organs, how phonemes are articulated, how phonemes sound, and transcription.

George Dillon's Consonant Website at the University of Washington

Provides a break down of consonants into four classes by manner of articulation, including stops, fricatives, approximants, and nasals as well as allowing one to hear the consonants pronounced. The IPA symbols for each sound is also provided.

George Dillon's Vowel Website at the University of Washington

Provides a break down of vowels into classes; including front, back, central, and diphthongs as well as allowing one to hear the vowel sounds. The IPA symbols for all vowel sounds are provided.

George Dillon's Website of British and American English Vowel Sounds at the University of Washington

Compares two vowel quadrilaterals (charts) of British and American vowels allowing the user to hear the different by mousing over the IPA symbol.

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General

Johanna Rubba's Overview of the English Morphological System at the California Polytechnic State University

Provides definitions and examples of basic morphological terms; such as inflectional morphology, derivational morphology, and allomorphy. Additionally it explains word formation processes.

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Website: Morphology

Provides a very straight forward and easy to understand explantion of basic morphological concepts as well as definition of terms.

Byron Bender's Morphology Website at the University of Hawaii

Contains essays focused on morphological issues as well as exercises to help students learn about morphology. While the essays titled "Morphology Processes" and "Inflectional Paradigm" offer definitions of terms in morphology, "quot;Morphological Paradox" discusses seven issues in morphology.

Exercises

Identifying Word Classes Exercise

A collection of multiple choice questions to practice identifying words by form. Questions on the characteristics and tests of the following word classes: Nouns, Verbs, Adjective, Adverbs, Determiners, Pronouns, and Auxiliaries

Michael Buckhoff's Morphology Exercises

Provides a collection of questions asking the user to define morphological terms as well as questions asking for examples of morphological terms, especially derivational morphemes, inflectional morphemes, and roots.

Johanna Rubba's Morphology Exercises at California Polytechnic State University

Contains morpheme, affix, and root recognition exercises and morpheme analysis exercises.

Morphology and Language Acquisition

Michael Gasser's Notes on Morphology Learning at Indiana University

Explains how children learn morphological rules and recognize morphemes.

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General

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Site: Syntax and Syntactic Structures

Provides explanation of basic concepts (as well as more specific concepts in Syntax) and introduces technical terms.

Richard C. DeArmond's Theta Roles Website at Simon Fraser University

Introduces the concept of thematic(theta) roles and explains it in detail, while going through, and giving examples of, the most common theta roles.

Exercises

Michael Buckhoff's Syntax Exercises

Provides sample tree diagrams, and contains exercises on identifying parts of speech and phrases as well as active and passive voice identification.

University College of London's Syntax Exercises

Contains many exercises on identification of parts of speech, phrases, clauses, and sentences. As well as exercises on the Form and Function of word classes and phrases.

Natural Language Processing Syntax Interactive

Provides a test on general syntactic terms and their application as well as an exercise dedicated to identifying parts of speech and phrases.

Mount Allison University Syntax Exercises

Provides tree diagram and phrase structure exercises.

Stockholm University Syntax Exercises

Contains exercises on identifying elements of noun phrases, adjective phrases, and clauses as well as clause type and function.

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General

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Website: Semantics

Provides explanation of basic concepts (as well as more specific concepts in Syntax) and introduces technical terms.

John M. Lawler's Lecture on Metaphors at the University of Michigan

Explains the role that metaphor plays within semantics.

WordNet at Princeton University

A reference tool (i.e. lexical database) that allows the user to search through groupings of words that express related concepts. All groupings are interconnected based on semantic relations.

Ken Bach's Essay on Semantics and Pragmatics at San Francisco State University

Gives an explanation of the differences of semantics and pragmatics and why these differences are important.

Exercises

Michael Buckhoff's Semantics Exercise

Quizzes the user on examples of terminology used in Semantics.

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General

Andrew Moore's Teaching Resource Website: Pragmatics and Speech Acts

Provides an introduction of what Pragmatics is, and how we employ pragmatic concepts in everyday speech. Also includes a presentation of Speech Act theory; that is, how we achieve certain outcomes through speech.

Mike Gasser's Pragmatics Website at Indiana University

Provides information on introductory pragmatics concepts. Austin and Searle's Speech Acts as well as Grice's Maxims and Conversational Implicature; examples for both of which are included.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: "Pragmatics, Socially Speaking"

An article that describes the communication skills associated with pragmatics as well as pragmatic problems in children's communication.

Exercises

Michael Buckhoff's Pragmatics Exercise

Quizzes the user on a variety of concepts, including Speech Acts and Conversational Maxims.

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First Language Acquisition

Edward Vadja’s Notes on First Language Acquisition at Western Washington University

Includes a short history of the study of first language acquisition as well as explanation of terminology, and the patterning of common mistakes that occure in a child's developing language.

Second Language Learning

Vivian Cook's Second Language Learning Topics

Website prepared by a professor from the University of Newcastle which includes information on many topics: approaches to researching second language acquisition and learning and using a second language. Also contains an extensive bibliography of SLA research as of 2007.

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General

Edward Vajda’s Notes on Language and the Brain at Western Washington University

Explains the relationship between language and the brain (i.e. biological basis for language), including brain structure and what diseases/injuries in the brain tell us about language's locality therein.

Disorders Associated With Language and the Brain

Nobelprize.org’s Resources on Roger Sperry, Winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

Helpful website that includes the following Roger Sperry resources:

• 1) 1981 Physiology/Medicine Nobel Prize Press Release
• 2) 1981 Physiology/Medicine Nobel Prize Presentation Speech
• 3) A biographical article on Roger Sperry
• 4) Roger Sperry’s autobiography
• 5) Roger Sperry's Nobel lecture
• 6) Educational “split-brain experiment game,” which allows the user to understand the process of Roger Sperry's Nobel-winning research

University of Idaho’s College of Science’s Description of Nervous System Diseases: Broca’s Aphasia

Provides a short description of Broca’s aphasia as well as background information on Dr. Paul Broca.

University of Idaho’s College of Science’s Description of Nervous System Diseases: Wernicke’s Aphasia

Provides a short description of Wernicke’s aphasia as well as background information on Dr. Carl Wernicke.

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General

"Introduction to American English" at the University of Tampere

Provides information on a variety of topics, including Britain and American English, ethnic and regional dialects, the influence of loan words, language as a cultural stereotype, and regional orientation/ethnic identity in langauge.

PBS’s “Do You Speak American?” Website: From Sea to Shining Sea

discusses the varieties of American English, “Standard” American English, and the controversy over having an “official” language in the United States

PBS’s “Do You Speak American?” Website: What Speech Do We Like Best?

Discusses language prejudices, sociolinguistics, language as prestige, and descriptivism vs. prescriptivism

UrbanDictionary.com

A slang dictionary where everday people submit and vote on new meanings or uses for words.

Languages of the World

The Linguist List by Eastern Michigan University and Wayne State University

Profiles many languages, including alternate names and dialects of each language as well as information on where the language is spoken. Allows one to search by name, country, or family tree.

Dialects of English

The Varieties of English at the University of Arizona

Explains and differentiates seven different types of English, provides background information on phonetics and phonology, and includes articulation and transcription exercises, as well as exercises particular to the different varieties of English.

The Speech Accent Archive at George Mason Universite

Allows one to browse a collection of recordings of many English accents which a user can listen to.

American English Dialects

A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English at University of Pennsylvania

Gives a detailed explanation of differences in United States’ dialects and their historical and contemporary development.

Student Regional Dialects in the United States Website at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Discusses properties of dialects from the South, Northeast, West, and transitional regions and allows one to hear some audio clips of the dialects.

Barbara Johnstone and Scott F. Kiesling’s Pittsburgh Speech and Society Website at Carnegie Mellon University

Discusses the “Pittsburghese” dialect and provides a glossary of “Pittsburghese” terms. Also contains pods casts and other resources.

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General

PBS’s “Do You Speak American?” Website: Words That Shouldn’t Be?

Allows one to track origins of words as well as a discussion about what makes language change and an introduction of slang terms.

PBS’s “Do You Speak American?” Website: What Lies Ahead

Discusses language change, as well as America’s role in changing other languages and the power of the mass media in controlling language.

Andrew Moore’s Teaching Resource Website: Language Change in English

Introduces basic concepts of language change, including conversion and word formation. Also contains exercises on language change terms.

Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography at the University of Illinois

Allows one to browse over 1,000 scholarly references dealing with language change. All articles include an abstract and many have full-text inclusions.

National Science Foundation’s Webpage on Language Change

Provides basic information on how and why languages change.

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General

Suzanne Kemmer’s Chronology of Events in the History of English at Rice University

Provides a timeline of the important events that contributed to the development of the English language.

Peter Erdmann and See-Young Cho’s Brief History of English Lexicography at Technical University of Berlin

Provides a timeline of English dictionaries starting with the early Latin dictionaries and continues to the present-day English dictionaries.

Luminarium English Literature Anthology

An anthology of works from Middle, 16th century Renaissance, and early 17th century English literature with short author biographies and critical essays.

Suzanne Kemmer’s English Loanword Website at Rice University

Explains what loanwords are while giving examples from many different languages and time periods.

Old English

Proto Indo European Language Demonstration and Exploration Website: Old English at University of Texas-San Antonio

Explains the development of Old English, similarities between Old English words and their relation to Modern English and foreign language words.

Michael Drought’s Old English Grammar Book at Wheaton College

Gives a complete explanation of the grammar of Old English in 20 chapters dealing with different aspects of it.

Old English Aerobics at the University of Virginia

Designed to help one learn the basic grammar of Old English as well as pronunciation by allowing the user to hear Old English spoken. Contains exercises on the grammar of Old English.

Murray McGillivray and Cindy McMann’s Old English Course at the University of Calgary

Explains the basic principles of the Old English language by providing helpful charts. Also allows users to hear Old English spoken.

Old English Made Easy Dictionary

A dictionary that translates Old English to modern English and modern English to Old English.

Modern English/Old English Glossary at Memorial University of Newfoundland

A glossary for translating modern English words into Old English words

Middle English

Jan Tillery’s Notes on Middle English at University of Texas-San Antonio

Provides a detailed outline of the historical events during the Middle English period, describes sound changes, and gives possible explanations for English changes during this period.

The Language and Linguistics of Chaucer’s Time at Harvard University

Allows one to hear pronunciations of Middle English phonemes, gives information on Middle English and Middle English dialects, and allows one to search for words in Chaucer’s texts.

Teach Yourself to Read Chaucer’s Middle English at Harvard University

Provides lessons for learning middle English and explains pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

Edwin Duncan’s Chaucer Glossary at Towson University

Provides a glossary of Middle English words found in Geoffrey Chaucer’s writing with asterisks marking the one-hundred most-used words.

Early Modern English

The Great Vowel Shift at Furman University

Explains the Great Vowel Shift through evidence of its presence being represented in literature.

The Great Vowel Shift at Harvard University

Another explanation of the Great Vowel Shift that allows the user to hear the vowel pronunciations.

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General

Andrew Moore’s Teaching Resource Website: Language and Gender

Provides explanation of basic concepts and introduces terms.

Mark Liberman’s Language and Gender Website at University of Pennsylvania

Explains differences in the language used by men and women, how biological differences between men and women affect language, stereotypes of language and gender.

Language and Sexism

Linguistic Society of America's Guidelines for Non-Sexist Language Usage

Provides guidelines on how to avoid sexist language.

Gender-Sensitive Language Website at the University of North Carolina

Explains gender issues in language and provides tips on how to be “gender-neutral” when writing.

Kelley Ross’ Essay, “Against the Theory of ‘Sexist Language’”

Essay that argues against sexism in language.

Maeve Conrick’s Essay, “Gender and Linguistic Stereotyping” (University College Cork)

Discusses linguistic stereotyping of women, including a list of the controversial stereotypes.

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General

PBS’s “Do You Speak American?” Website: Correct American

Discusses prescriptivism and descriptivism, the proposed decline of English grammar, and list of commonly mispronounced words.

Prescriptive Grammar Rules

Paul Brians’ List of Non-Errors at Washington State University

Provides a list of English prescriptive grammar errors that are actually standard in the English language.

Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman's Website on Grammar Myths

Discusses various myths about grammar, how they came to be and why they are wrong.

Essays

Excerpt from The Sixties Book by Alex Gross

Discusses the theory of British English being the “correct” form of English as well as the implications of the contrasting English styles for students learning English as a second language.

Geoffrey Nunberg’s Essay “The Decline of Grammar”

Discusses the theory of language degeneration.

Barbara Wallraff’s Essay “What Global Language”

Discusses the thought of English becoming the universal language (world language).

Patricia T. O'Conner's "Debunking Grammar Myths" on the Mental Floss Magazine's Blog

a blog post discussing five popular myths about grammar, and how they are artifical impositions on the English Language.

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General

Michael Quinn’s “World Wide Words” Website

A large website that contains over 1,500 pages of information about English words and phrases including a question and answer section, alphabetical word and phrase lists, and a variety of articles about etymology. Also offers a free newsletter to users who subscribe.

David Wilton’s “Word Origins” Website

Provides the word origins of many words and phrases. The “Topics” link provides several short explanatory essays regarding etymology. Includes a useful bibliography of sources.

Patricia T. O'Conner's "Debunking Etymological Myths" on the Mental Floss Magazine's Blog

Discusses several popular myths about the origins of modern words and phrases.

Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary (for University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Students only)

The ultimate word history resource.

Online Etymology Dictionary

Provides the word history of many words, including language of origin and where it was borrowed from.

Urban Dictionary

A dictionary or contemporary slang. Definitions are posted by users and then rated as either accurate or not to determine if they stay on the site.

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General

John Burkardt’s Word Play Website

Explains several word games and gives interesting word facts.

Wikipedia.org's Language Games Encyclopedia Entry

A very informative website that gives background information on language games and provides examples of many language games in several languages.

Language Games

A website dedicated to providing language games, including crosswords, word searches, and hangman.

Types of Language Games

Suzanne Kemmer’s Cockney Rhyming Slang Website at Rice University

Explains the rules and origins of Cockney Rhyming Slang.

Eggy-Peggy Website at the University of Texas

Explains the rules of the language game Eggy-Peggy.

Suzanne Kemmer’s Internet Slang Website at Rice University

Introduces many examples of internet slang

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General

C. George Boeree’s International English Website at Shippensburg University

Gives detailed characteristics of English spoken in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States. Also explains the historical aspects of the differences of each type of Englise.

Johannes Reese’s International English Website

Describes in detail the Englishes of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada (with details on Newfoundland), Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa

International English Dialect Website at George Mason University

allows one to hear pronunciation of English in many different international dialects

The Varieties of English at the University of Arizona

Explains and differentiates seven different types of English with background information on phonetics and phonology. Includes articulation and transcription exercises, as well as exercises particular to the different varieties of English.

Fonetiks’ Pronunciation Website

Allows one to hear the phonemes of American, British, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Canadian, Indian, and South African English.

Sean Coughlan’s Article “English ‘World Language’ Forecast” (BBC News)

Discusses the globalization of the English language.

Canadian English

Dane Jurcic’s Canadian English Website

Explains the vocabulary, pronunciation, and style and syntax associated with Canadian English.

Taylor Roberts’ Notes on Canadian English Raising at York University

Explains “rasing,” a phonological process associated with Canadian English and allows the user to hear examples.

Australian and New Zealand English

Scott Kleinman’s Australian and New Zealand English Notes at the California State University at Northridge

Contains excerpts on early thoughts of Australian and New Zealand English.

Qin Yan’s Overview of Australian English at the University of Brunel

Explains the phonological differences of Australian English

Indian English

Scott Kleinman’s South Asian English Notes at the California State University at Northridge

Provides information on South Asian vocabulary and syntax and ontains excerpts on early thoughts on South Asian English.

Siddharth Srivastava’s Article “English, the Indian Way” (Worldpress.org)

Explains the recent developments of Indian English.

African English

Scott Kleinman’s African English Notes at the California State University at Northridge

Provides examples of African English and contains excerpts on the attitudes toward African English.

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Name Etymology

ProGeneoligists Surname Study

Allows one to see the surname (last name) distribution over the United States in the years 1850, 1880, 1920, and 1990.

Behind the Name

Provides the etymology and history behind first names.

The Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Name Website

Allows one to see the top twenty most popular baby first names in every year since 1880, and the most 1000 popular baby first names by decade.

Onomastics

Gymnastics with Onomastics

Defines onomastics terms, explains the structure of names, and how names of people and nations are formed.

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