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Research and Resources on Dialects and Speech Communities

American Dialect Society

You can look up resources about sociolinguistic research from the ADL newsletter or join a Listserv sponsored by the association. Of special note is the assessment of new words and expressions that are added to American English each year.

Do You Speak American?

This is the Website for a three-part program presented on PBS by Robin McNeill that explores language variation within the United States.

Languages of the World - Ethnologue.com

Ethnologue.com used to be called the Summer Language Institute. It provides information about world languages. Of special interest is its World Map of Languages. Click on one of the continents and find a listing of countries and the languages spoken in each. The country profiles will examine how many ethnic groups or dialect groups there are within a country. It also reports information on literacy rates and types of sign language that are used.

Center for Applied Linguistics

This is a research and advocacy group that focuses on language diversity and language policy.

iLoveLanguages Page

You can find resources here for many lanaguages, especially European languages. The page is part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library.

Phonetic Resources

Developed by George Dillon from the University of Washington, this page provides resources for the study of phones and phonemes. There are additional resources for waveform analysis of sounds and materials related to speech recognition.

foneticks

This online recource helps you hear the phonetic features of ten different languages, including five different dialects of English as it is spoken in England, Ireland, Australia, Canada or the United States.

American Heritage Dictionary - Pronunciation

This essay from the beginning of the American Heritage Dictionary explains some of the rules and difficulties of pronouncing English. A unique feature of the dictionary is that its pronunciation guides reflect actual usage. You can also search the dictionary for individual words.

Columbia Encyclopedia Key to Pronunciation

Note examples of how common dictionary diacritical markings are used.

The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Developed at Carnegie Mellon, this is a pronouncing dictionary that uses a system of phonetic markings.

yourDictionary.com

This source provides a number of dictionaries and commentaries on English usage. Examples of note include a listing of commonly mispronounced words and cases of frequent spelling errors. The Dr. Language section features commentary on language.

foneticks

This online recource helps you hear the phonetic features of ten different languages, including five different dialects of English as it is spoken in England, Ireland, Australia, Canada or the United States.

Speech Analysis Tutorial

Experimental phonetics is used on this page to explain the acoustic elements of phonemes. The page explains waveform and spectographic analysis of sounds.

American Communication Association - Resources for Language and Linguistics

Research resources can be found here for studying a number of languages.

Language Policy Website

James Crawford provides resources and copies of some his work on language policy.

U.S. English

U.S. English is an organization that advocates for English as the official language of the United States.

 

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Copyright, 2000-05 by Terrence A. Doyle, Ph. D.
Feedback to tdoyle@nvcc.edu