Category Archives: LANGUAGE

2007 US words of the year, vote for Australia’s

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Kevin

In addition to the already posted locavore from the New Oxford American Dictionary (Vote for Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year; Visual Dictionary) and w00t! from Merriam-Webster (Merriam-Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year), the latter from an online poll: Webster’s … Continue reading →

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2008: International Year of Languages

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Kevin

The United Nations has declared 2008 to be an International Year of Languages, to be overseen by UNESCO. Happy new year to all.

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Merriam-Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year

Posted on December 14, 2007 by Kevin

As I mentioned in my previous post (Vote for Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year; Visual Dictionary) American dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster was taking a word poll. The winner is w00t! (woot with zeros, à la leet [l33t] speak), like yay! … Continue reading →

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Vote for Webster’s 2007 Word of the Year; Visual Dictionary

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Kevin

You have until Friday, December 7, 2007, to vote for Merriam-Webster dictionaries’ Word of the Year. The winner in 2006 was truthiness, as popularized by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report TV show. 2007 Nominees: apathetic babymoon blamestorm charlatan conundrum … Continue reading →

Posted in LANGUAGE, Words / Dictionaries | 2 Comments

Lingro: Free Web page translation by word and more

Posted on November 30, 2007 by Kevin

You can get whole Web pages translated (Google Language Tools, Babel Fish, etc.), but here’s a free tool to translate any individual word on a Web page you want: Lingro (via Education Week). Lingro works for English-English and both to … Continue reading →

Posted in English as a Second / Foreign Language, Foreign Languages, LANGUAGE, Language Technology, Language-Sites, Words / Dictionaries | Leave a comment

Marathon of ‘Word Girl’ kids’ vocabulary show

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Kevin

Look, up in the sky! It’s a . . . well, it’s a superpowered word-loving girl. This Friday, November 23, 2007, America’s PBS public broadcasters will air a two-hour marathon of their new children’s vocabulary TV show Word Girl (check … Continue reading →

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Freerice: Vocabulary quiz helps UN food program

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Kevin

Do you like words? If you want to test your vocabulary and add to it while helping to feed the hungry people of the world, try Freerice. Here’s how it works: For every correct answer to FreeRice’s online vocabulary game, … Continue reading →

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Free access to OUP foreign-language dictionaries 10/2007, quizzes

Posted on October 17, 2007 by Kevin

In honor of National Dictionary Day (American lexicographer Noah Webster’s birthday), Oxford University Press USA is offering free access to its online French-English, German-English, Spanish-English, and Italian-English dictionaries (oup.com/online/freeoldous/). [EDIT (6/6/10): dead link] This free access is from October 15 … Continue reading →

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Follow-up: Help test internationalized domain names

Posted on October 16, 2007 by Kevin

As I reported last week (Help test internationalized domain names 2007-10-15), the time has come to see how non-Latin characters will work in domain names. The Internet administrators at ICANN have set up test domains (http://example.test) in eleven writing systems. … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Languages, LANGUAGE, Language Technology | 1 Comment

Help test internationalized domain names 2007-10-15

Posted on October 12, 2007 by Kevin

As I mentioned over a year ago (More writing systems for Internet addresses), Internet domains are biased towards English speakers. You have to use only the Latin alphabet (without accents), Arabic numerals, and hyphens (all English ASCII characters) for Web … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign Languages, LANGUAGE, Language Technology | 1 Comment