This week Merriam-Webster Inc, the company responsible for producing that venerable dictionary announced its top 10 "words of the year" list, with the immensely popular "blog" taking the number one place. The company compiles the list each year by taking the most researched words on its various Web sites, and of course, always omits such consistently favored profanities. Interestingly enough,...

Ampersand is an international, open-access journal "serving the breadth of the general and applied linguistics communities." Intended to serve a broad audience from researchers and practitioners to lay readers, the journal publishes articles that span many linguistic realms, including "applied and historical linguistics, phonetics, phonology, pragmatics, semantics, sociolinguistics and syntax." In...

Compiling records on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, AUSTLANG is a comprehensive database for linguists and historians. An interactive map highlights many of these language records, and the full database is available just below. Searchable by "language names," "placenames," or geographical code, the database curates information on a multitude of Aboriginal and Torres Strait...

For teachers of English as a Second Language, the Cambridge English website offers a host of resources based on the organization's 100-plus years of helping English language learners. While many of the resources here are geared toward English language requirements in the UK, any ESL teacher will find helpful tips in the many free sample papers, lesson plans, teacher guides, and videos. Resources...

There are approximately 7,000 languages spoken around the globe, and more than 4,000 of them are part of Indigenous cultures. According to the United Nations, 2,680 of those Indigenous languages are at risk of disappearing. Readers who would like to hear some of these languages may enjoy Celebrating Indigenous Languages, a new interactive project from Google Earth. Launched in August 2019, this...

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) is a private non-profit organization comprised of scholars and educators "who use the findings of linguistics and related sciences in identifying and addressing language-related problems." The organization's homepage will be of great interest to educators and policy-makers alike, as it contains a number of very useful resources, lesson plans, and other...

The Dictionary of Cook Islands Languages is a project of the Cook Islands Ministry of Education, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Te Ipukarea (the National Maori Language Institute), and the University of the South Pacific. Here, visitors can search for translations of words in eight different languages spoken in the Cook Islands, including Rarotonga (sometimes called "Cook Island Maori"),...

Duolingo is a mobile app designed to help people learn and practice a new language. Users can select any one of 36 languages and practice reading, listening, and speaking this language. The app works by introducing users to new vocabulary and grammar rules through a series of short levels. The goal? Users will learn by seeing words and grammar modeled. Next, users can try their hand at...

Readers curious to learn about ancient languages and linguistics may find this collection of free self-study lessons provided by the Linguistic Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin to be a helpful starting point. Here, visitors will find introductory lesson series for more than fifteen ancient Indo-European languages, including (for example) Classical Greek, Old Norse, and Ancient...

Languages provide an important window into cultural heritage and identity, yet "over 40 percent of the world's approximate 7,000 languages are at risk of disappearing." The Endangered Languages Project works to combat this endangerment crisis by providing a repository to store and study languages and linguistic resources. The project was launched with assistance from Google, the First Peoples'...