“The title of Wendy Lesser’s essay collection, The Genius Of Language, reminds us that language is the oldest and smartest of human technologies. Nothing the human race has ever come up with since ó not computer technology, not space flights ó remotely compares in power and sophistication.”

“Information about over 200 different writing systems. Each page contains an illustration of a writing system; details of its origin, usage, notable features and the language(s) written with it; a sample text, and useful links.”

“Looking for the meaning or origin of a phrase or saying? Here’s free access to: A list of the meanings and origins of over 2,000 English phrases and sayings. You can either browse via our A-Z Index or scan with our search engine. Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over how a phrase originated or whether you just enjoy words, you’ll probably find something here to interest you.”

“[An anagram is a] word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase. For example, Elvis to Lives… this advanced anagram engine gives you many options to filter and show only interesting anagrams.”

Language Log is a group weblog that posts thoughts and opinions on things such as “dangling conjuncts,” “snowclones,” and “quantifiers,” while also covering adjectives, pronouns and other basics.

“This site examines the accented speech of speakers from many different language backgrounds reading the same sample paragraph [in English]… Everyone who speaks a language, speaks it with an accent. A particular accent essentially reflects a person’s linguistic background. When people listen to someone speak with a different accent from their own, they notice the difference, and they may even make certain biased social judgments about the speaker.”

“The Internet saveth time, and it taketh time away. How many minutes or hours have you spent searching for the right expert information, wrestling through scads of search results? How many times have you visited what seemed a promising site at first, but was really a thinly disguised ad for merchandise or a fee-based service? In our fifth annual ‘101 Best Web Sites for Writers,’ we list only sites that adhere to our criteria of inclusion. Sites must be current and authoritative, offer some free content and have tangible value to writers.”

“This text circulated on the internet in September 2003… I’ve written this page, to try to explain the science behind this meme. There are elements of truth in this, but also some things which scientists studying the psychology of language (psycholinguists) know to be incorrect. I’m going to break down the meme, one line at a time to illustrate these points…” See original xBlog post of 17 Sep 2003.

“The Plain Language Action and Information Network is a government-wide group of volunteers working to improve communications from the federal government to the public. We believe better communication will increase trust in government, reduce government costs, and reduce the burden on the public. People should be able to understand what we write the first time they read it, especially materials that tell people how to obtain benefits or comply with requirements.”

“At the tattoo parlor, Marcus Gonzales found a list of Chinese characters and picked ’strength’ and ‘courage.’ His Tai-chi teacher finally confessed that they really say ‘dog’ and ‘puppy.’”

“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.” Aslo: The ordering of the letters doesn’t matter.

“The Devil’s Dictionary (2.0) is a repository of free-floating hostility and barely supressed rage. It is also a good argument for taking computers away from certain people. The Dictionary is maintained by Greg Knauss. It’s mostly his rage.”

“Bower birds are artists, leaf-cutting ants practice agriculture, crows use tools, chimpanzees form coalitions against rivals. The only major talent unique to humans is language, the ability to transmit encoded thoughts from the mind of one individual to another. Because of language’s central role in human nature and sociality, its evolutionary origins have long been of interest to almost everyone, with the curious exception of linguists.”

“Written language is just a particular case of visual language. In fact there are many visual languages that appear to share common rules. Thinking about the visual language can help us to convey our messages in a more effective way.”

“Symbols carved into tortoise shells more than 8,000 years ago may be the oldest words yet discovered. The findings may also shed light on the ritualistic practices of Neolithic China.”