[Language Families] [Readers' Feedback (Languages)]
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Languages and LinguisticsLanguage Families : The English Language : Words
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There are descriptions of several language families in detail:
Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Sino-Tibetan, Malayo-Polynesian, Afro-Asiatic, Caucasian, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, Other Families.
There is also a listing of the 30 Most Spoken Languages in the world.
The list features languages as diverse as Arabic, Hindi, Cree, Italian, Quechua and Ewe. Borrowed words include algebra, ketchup, barbecue, yacht, baron, caravan, picnic, patio, lava, clock, theory, shampoo, doctor, and chocolate.
A search engine allows borrowed words to be found by language, continent, language family, and type of word.
A map shows the evolution of scripts, alphabets and syllabaries with links to several examples:
Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Bengali, Berber, Brahmi, Burmese, Cham, Chinese Characters, Chinese Pictograms, Coptic, Cuniform, Cyrillic, Etruscan, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin (Roman and Modern), Lepcha, Linear B, Malayalam, Maldivian, Mayan, Mongolian, Nastaliq, Oriya, Phoenician, Punjabi, Runic, Samaritan, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Syriac, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tocharian, Ugarit.
A table shows the evolution of the Latin Alphabet from the original Phoenician alphabet.
"Have a butchers, me old china!"
Many writers on the web assume that their readers will be from a particular country ("the Prime Minster says..."), cultural background ("the holiday season is approaching..."), hemisphere ("now that spring is here...") or religion ("merry Christmas...").
These assumptions can be a bar to effective communication and may even cause offence.
From a linguistic point of view, this essay includes a section on how language is used to obscure facts and mould public opinion.
Language Families
A complete index to many of the world's language families.
Language for Travellers
A web site featuring languages useful for travellers.
Webster's Dictionary
An excellent American dictionary.
Etymology
An excellent etymological site with many links and a section on World English.
First Names
Very large site for the etymology and history of first names.
Numbers
A list of the numbers 1 to 10 in thousands of languages and many more language resources.
So You Wanna
So you want to know the most spoken languages in the World. Plus more on languages.
