Overview |
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Language Overview |
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Wikipedia-
Foreign Language. A brief article about foreign languages
and some related links.
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Wikipedia-
Natural Language. An extensive article about human
languages.
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Summer Institute of Linguistics. A brief article about what foreign
languages and a good set of related links.
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Mercator - Linguistic Rights and Legislation. Mercator is a
network of three research and documentation centers that deal with
the minority languages of the European Union, including languages
spoken in overseas territories of European Union countries. If you
want to know detailed information on the languages spoken by these
minorities including a language's legal status, this is the place to
come. They call their information page on a minority language, a
dossier, so that should tell you something!
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Language Museum. They
have sample text in over 2,000 languages. Each
sample consists of (1) a sample of text in the language displayed
as an image so you don't have to worry about having the type font on
your computer, (2) an English translation, (3) the countries and
populations that speak it, and(4) its language family and branch.
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Many |
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How
Many Languages Are There in the World? |
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There are anywhere from
6,000 to 7,000 languages spoken in the world today depending on the
information
source although about 90% of
the world's population (that's 6 billion people) speak one or several of
just 15 languages. There are estimated to be another 5,000
dialects in existence but again that depends on your source. Pretty awesome for such a small planet!
Languages can both unite and divide a country.
It would be a good
thing if everyone on the planet spoke two languages, their native
language that they learned growing up and a common language shared by
everyone.
The ability of anyone
to be able to talk directly to anyone else would be a powerful force for
world peace.
Language statistics are not exact and vary depending on the source of
information and other factors. For example, there is no universal
agreement on what is a dialect so several definitions are in
use. Also, because we live on the Planet Earth, politics plays a role
in what is considered a distinct language or dialect.
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Widely |
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Most Widely Spoken
Languages |
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Well, like almost everything else on
this planet, there is no simple answer as it depends on how you look
at it. There is also the matter of the most influential
languages which are based not merely on the number of speakers but
also on other factors. The best website we have found is
actually an American High School in Cleveland, Ohio. They
received a Golden Web Award for their language topic
The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages
and they certainly deserve it. The information is presented in a clear and interesting way. Even
if you are not interested in learning about languages, we think you
will find it fascinating to read. The various lists
cover 9 to 13 languages depending on what is represented by each
list. It is just a single page so it
is a quick read. They also have some nice
Languages of the World charts and graphs.
Thank you, Mr. Turner for being the force behind this project.
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Country -
Language Guides |
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Almost all
travel guides include a list of the languages spoken
for the places they cover.
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World Links. Our website, Travel Science, is the
only travel site we know of that cross-links their
country and city pages that contain tourist information
to language pages that have links to websites where you
can learn the languages spoken, often online and for free.
All our language pages also have links to our country
pages where the language is spoken. Country and
city pages are cross-linked as well. We want to
make it easy for tourists and travelers to quickly learn
a few words in the language of the places they will be
visiting. Start your travel and language adventure
by visiting our
World Links section.
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Summer Institute of
Linguistics Languages of the World. This
is the best place on the web to find out detailed
information on the languages of the world. This
link will take you to their world map and lists of all
the languages of the world organized by continent. You
can click on the map or select a continent by name and
then select from a list of countries for that continent.
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Fonts |
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Type Fonts for Foreign Languages |
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We cover how to find a type font you need
to be able to view a website whose language uses a different set of
characters than the Latin-based alphabets used by western countries.
We also cover sources of downloading fonts for use in your word
processors and desktop publishing systems where you need to enter text
in another language that does not use a Latin-based alphabet.
Remember, if you are entering characters in another language, they will
need to be mapped to your standard QWERTY keyboard and in some cases
there is also special software required to allow you to type in another
language, such as when the language is written
right to left instead of left to
right. (Microsoft provides a Windows Character Map tool you
can bring up that displays your keyboard in a separate window with the
keys configured for a foreign font.
If you need to view a website that is not in the English language, in
many cases your browser will automatically display the text correctly
due to the inclusion of foreign type fonts with the browser and the
information embedded in the webpage that tells your browser what
language type fonts the text is in. Also see the article below on free
tools to automatically translate web pages.
If you encounter a case where the page does not display correctly in the
original language, there are several options available. The common
option is to install the necessary type fonts used by the language on
your computer. If you are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it has
many options for getting the fonts. Check the IE Help Menu for
information by searching for "foreign language support."
Almost all foreign fonts are available
for free or as shareware from various sources. Microsoft has made available just about
every foreign font you would need. You can even download, for free,
their CJK language Pac for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Apple
Computer also has language kits available. Netscape and
other browsers can also show you how to get foreign fonts for their
browsers.
Some websites that use foreign fonts let you download fonts free to
view their pages. Check a browser's help, online help and knowledge
base for information on foreign fonts.
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Foreign Font
Resources
To search the web, enter the name of the language you want a
font for or the name of the written form of the language
which may differ from the name of the language itself.
Include the term "type fonts" and if you are looking for free
or shareware, enter those words as well. |
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Translation |
Web
Site and Web Page Automatic Translation
Oh, the
marvels of the 21st century and some of them are even free! |
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When you encounter a website
in another language and would like to see it translated into
your own language, don't despair. Free automatic
translation tools are available and will usually do a pretty
good job. But not all tools have the same lists of languages
they can translate between so you may have to search around.
To Search the web: if you want to search the
web for a translation tool to translate between two
languages, enter the two language names and the word
automatic translation. If you are looking for a free or
shareware tools, include those words as well.
Example: English German
free automatic translation, French Russian free
translation
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Humanitas International.
This is the best place we have found for free automatic
translations of text or websites. These wonderful
people have built a page that has all the major free
automatic translation website input forms on it. In
addition they have two free Identify
Language tools where you can paste in sample text of
an unknown language and get it identified.
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Google
Language Tools. Thank you Google
for giving the world this wonderful automatic translation tool.
You can get a pretty good automatic translation by using
their translation tool. Just scroll down to the
Translate a web
page box and see if they have an automatic translation between
the two languages you need. If they do, select it and then paste
the URL web address of the web page into the
http:// box.
The great thing about this is that if you click on a link on the
translated page to go to another page on the same website, it gets
automatically translated as well! Truly amazing!
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Babel Fish
Translation. This
is AltaVista's fine automatic translation tool.
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Reverso Free Trial Translation Service.
They allow you to translate parts of web pages and text for
free but it is not as complete as Google and some of the
others as they offer a commercial product as well.
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Reviews |
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Language
Product Reviews |
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Here are some websites that
have reviewed language
products (books, software, CD-ROM, and audio or video learning aids).
To search the web: Enter: Learn <language name> product
reviews >> Learn French product
reviews
1.
TopTenReviews.com-
Software Reviews.
They have an excellent review of some foreign language software products.
Click on the product you are interested in under the Foreign
Languages category.
2.
About.com - Language Product Reviews - This will take you to the
search results on their website for Language Product Reviews.
They have rated about half a dozen language products the last time we
checked.
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ZDNet - Foreign Language Reviews. They have a few reviews of
language software products.
4.
Translation-Guide.com
has a
language software review section.
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Language-Learning-Advisor - Product Reviews This is their
Product Reviews section. They also have information and links for
learning major languages.
6.
Amazon.com
All their products include customer reviews and ratings. Here are some
direct links. Once on the page, enter the language you are
interested in, in the search box or select the language if it is shown
in a list of languages on the page.
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Amazon.com
Resources |
Description |
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If you are a tourist or
traveler and just want to take along a phrasebook or
dictionary, this link will take you to their Travel Book
section. Just enter the name of the language + language
in the search box and click Go. (if you want a
specific type of language book or publisher, include that as
well.)
Example: German Language, Lonely Planet German
Language, Swedish phrasebook, Dutch-English dictionary.
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Add the language name to the
search box to get all products available for the language
(e.g., books, DVD, audio cassette, software, etc.) and click
Go.
Example: Language learning German
Or if you are interested in a type of language
product, include the term:
Example: German Phrasebook
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This is their foreign language
book section. Select a language from the left-hand column or
enter the language name in the search box and click Go.
If you are looking for a specific publisher or type of book
(e.g., Berlitz, phrasebook, dictionary, Berlitz) include that
term as well.
Example: Thai, Thai phrasebook, Berlitz Thai
phrasebook, Thai-English dictionary
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We drop you off at the
Software section with search results for
Language software. Just add the
name of the language to the search box to find software for
that language and click Go.
Example: Language software
French
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Add the language name to the
search box to get audio courses available for that language
and click Go.
Example: Language audio courses
Italian
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Add the language name to the
search box to get video courses available for that language
and click Go.
Example: Language video courses
Japanese
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This is their Electronics
section. Add the language name to the search box to get
electronic translators available between two languages and
click Go.
Example: Foreign language
translators English Russian
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