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Language Publications and Sites

Languagehat—Wide-ranging coverage of language- and literature-related topics, with an eye for unusual language and languages, and a solid cast of regular commenters. Language or linguistic dilettantes and amateurs will satisfy their curiosity and passion here.

Language Log—One of the smartest group blogs on any topic anywhere on the Anglophone Internet, featuring respected linguists and grammarians commenting on the mundane, arcane, and profane. A key to the blog's success is that the various posters disagree as often as they agree—meaning more than one school of thought is represented, rather than whatever is faddish or fashionable. Alas, attempts at allowing visitors to comment proved unviable.

WordOrigins.org—Dave Wilton's site not only features key refutations of common etymological myths (see the "Big List" on the main page), but a chummy group of expert regular visitors in its discussion forums, where the level of discourse is high despite a sorry occasional fondness for puns. And woe to the lazy student looking for someone else to do their research! Dave also offers a free, informative email newsletter.

The Word Spy is one of the longest-running web sites keeping track of new English words, though it tends to feature stunt words, terms pushed by marketers, and funny-once blends. Paul McFedries posts new words supported by citations, accompanied by "words about words," and now joined by visitor comments. He published a book based on the site in 2004. The site is now irregularly updated.

World Wide Words—You could spend a week on Michael Quinion's site and still not see everything. He's prolific and erudite, mainly from a British English perspective. His weekly newsletter is highly recommended.

Word Detective, by Evan Morris, carries on the tradition started by his parents of investigating the true roots of words. He does not accept the etymological detritus and bunk floating around the Internet, and shows a willingness to say "nobody knows" rather than endorse an unproven theory. His newsletter is also highly recommended.

Verbatim, the Language Quarterly. A neat and nifty newsletter with fun, funny, and quirky articles from a variety of authors. You can subscribe to the print edition or see a hearty amount of past content online for free.

Separated by a Common Language is a blog by Lynne Murphy, an American linguist who lives and works in the United Kingdom. She writes interestingly and comprehensibly about the differences between Englishes, covering everyday topics far beyond go to hospital or fanny.

Wordlustitude—Mark Peters collects and records nonce terms—one-offs used for an instant purpose and rarely, if ever, used again. Tons of fun and even further out on the fringes of English than the site you're visiting right now.

Vocabula Review, the home of English-language prescriptivism. School marms and pedants will leave sated by the screeds, rants, and warnings against sloppy language. Only select content is free, but subscriptions are cheap.

The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is devoted to the study of English in North America. Although it is an academic organization whose members include the top linguists, lexicographers, grammarians, language professors, linguistic doctoral candidates, writers, editors, and other language professionals in Canada and the United States, its membership is open to and includes amateurs, enthusiasts, and dilettantes. Through Duke University, ADS publishes the learned journal American Speech. I am the vice president in charge of communications and technology, which means I manage the society web site and field calls from media. ADS is mostly known to the general public for its words of the year votes, the longest-running, most democratic, and least commercial of all such votes. The society also has a very active email list.

Dictionary of Slang is Ted Duckworth's reliable collection of slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom.

Verbal Energy is a blog about language from Ruth Walker of the Christian Science Monitor.

Langue sauce piquante is a French-language blog kept by copy editors at Le Monde, a French newspaper. It covers the ins-and-outs and day-to-day decision-making of their profession.

Columns and Columnists

Nathan Bierma writes an "On Language" column for the Chicago Tribune and keeps a language blog for the Calvin College of Linguistics, as well as a personal blog.

William Safire writes an "On Language" column for the New York Times, which also syndicates it. Unfortunately, only columns published in the last week are free. The Taipei Times keeps a few more recent columns freely available; just search for "Safire" in the "byline" field.

Jan Freeman writes a column called "The Word" for the Boston Globe.

Barbara Wallraff writes two interchanging columns called "Word Fugitives" and "Word Court" for The Atlantic. Alas, it is only available by subscription. However, she also syndicates a column also called "Word Court." There is an archive on her web site, though more recent ones are best found via Google News, which has the last three or so from the Detroit Free Press

Sean Clarke writes his Blogofile entries about words and their etymologies for the Guardian Unlimited web site in the United Kingdom.

James J. Kilpatrick scans the newspapers for familiar language bugaboos as well as takes questions from readers.

Richard Creed writes a column about words, expressions, and grammar for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina.

June Casagrande writes about grammar and writing style for the Glendale News-Press, the Burbank Leader and the Foothill Leader, all part of the Los Angeles Times newspaper group. She has a book, Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies.

Merriam-Webster's Wordwatch, a Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service syndicated column, is archived at Times Argus of Barre/Montpelier, Vermont. Each mainly features answers to readers' questions, drawing from MW's vast lexical resources and its high-caliber editorial staff.

Ruth Wajnryb writes about language for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Jose Carillo writes about language for the Manila Times in the Philippines. His latest column can be found on the Opinion page.

Khaled Ahmed writes a column in English on Urdu and other languages spoken in Pakistan for the Pakistan Daily Times. He specializes in etymology and Quranic roots.

Radio Shows and Podcasts

A Way With Words, hosted by yours truly, Grant Barrett, and Martha Barnette, is an hour-long show produced by KPBS in San Diego. It features listener questions, quizzes, author interviews, and more puns than you'd think an hour could hold. A podcast is available.

Grammar Girl is a very popular language-related podcast. Each episode is about five minutes long and covers basic matters of style, punctuation, grammar, and language usage from a conservative point of view.

Lingua Franca on Radio National in Australia features a weekly essay about language, communication, linguistics, or literature. It's a think-inducing show.

WordWatch, hosted by Kel Richards from ABC NewsRadio in Australia, offers a short look at a word every weekday. A podcast is available.

Word of Mouth, hosted by Michael Rosen on BBC Radio 4, is not, unfortunately, offered in podcast form, but you can listen to the latest episode online.

Podictionary is a podcast of short word explanations and histories. Each week, the five few-minute broadcasts are also combined into Podictionary Weekly.

The Word Nerds are Howard Chang, Dave Shepherd, and Howard Shepherd. Each podcast contains music, jokes, and conversations about facets of language, plus the rude word of the week.

Book and Literature Sites

Maud Newton is an editor, writer, and book reviewer. She and her locum tenentes constantly post new, must-read links and original material that make it the best literature-related blog in the United States. You could stop with her site and never feel you weren't keeping up with the writerly side of the book business.

Oxford University Press Blog, edited by Rebecca Ford, features unique content from authors published by the press. A much higher level of discourse than is usual in the blog world. Of particular interest are the posts by Ben Zimmer, writing about lexicography, and by Anatoly Liberman, writing about etymology, which are all found in the blog's lexicography category.

People You Should Meet

Mike McLaurin is creative director and writer in New York City.

Barry Popik is an amateur word-hunter, by day working as a traffic judge in the Bronx but at other times occupying himself by scanning microfilm, menus, web sites, and other resources for the earliest uses of words and for terms that have heretofore been unrecorded. His best-known work is on the history of the terms jazz, hot dog, and the Big Apple.

Al Rotches is a creative director, specializing in web advertisements and promotional web sites.

Erin at A Dress A Day is a gown-geeks's geek. She writes about dresses, patterns, and fashion. Plenty of pictures, good wit, and a growing group of cheery commenters. She also writes the blog Dictionary Evangelist.

Jon Worley has been publishing the music zine "Aiding & Abetting" since 1991. He also is a part of the LCN Syndicate which offers weekly commentary on politics, life in America, beer, families, and anything else that comes to the authors' minds.

Words A Day

Double-Tongued Newsletter sends commentary and recent intersting catchwords via email.

Anu Garg's world-famous A.Word.A.Day mailing list (with more than 500,000 subscribers) includes slightly unusual but still current words, plus a weekly newsletter with subscriber comments. Anu has also published a couple of compilations.

Oxford English Dictionary will send its word a day via email. Surprisingly, although OED is known to include a large number of archaic and obsolete words, its words of the day tend to be fairly recognizable—more appropriate for students and aspiring writers than for Scrabble fiends or people looking to acquire a few more ten-dollar novelties. Includes all senses of a word and citations, just as the word appears in the online OED.

Oxford University Press also offers other daily email lists: the American Slang Word of the Day, the New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Day, Erin's Weird and Wonderful Word of the Day, as well as Bryan Garner's American English Usage Tip of the Day, all available via email subscription. Separately, it also offers the AskOxford Word of the Day via email.

Merriam-Webster's Word A Day mailing list includes two types of words: fairly conventional words perfect for a serious young student or a learner of English as a second language, as well as some jawcrackers and Latinate monsters that masters of vocabulary will appreciate.

Worthless Word for the Day includes so many exceptional, interesting, and odd words, that it's a shame not very many of them will ever fit into your everyday conversation. Words are available on the web site and via email subscription.

Dictionary.com sends unusual words via email, including several quotations demonstrating usage. Purports to be from "Dr. Dictionary."

YourDictionary.com sends odder-than-usual words via its email list, including a suggested usage and an etymology. Purports to be from "Dr. Language."

Wordcraft.com is particularly fond of eponyms, but it also sends slang, Americanism, neologisms, and other un-ordinary words. Available on the web site and via email subscription. Includes a short commentary about the word.

Bloomsbury's words of the day are slightly unusual and available on the web site or via email. The words are pulled from what amounts to the Encarta World English Dictionary. The mailing list would be improved if the word of the day was also included in the subject of the message.

One-Word-A-Day includes colloquial words and expressions targeted at German business-people interested in improving their English. Available via email or on the web site.

Writing Den's Word of the Day is available via email.

NSA Word of the Day is just what the Scrabble fan needs. The National Scrabble Association gives a Scrabble-approved word, its definition, anagrams, hooks, ana-hooks, typos, blana-grams, extensions, and sub-anagrams. Available on the web site or via RSS.

TravLang offers on its web site and via email a single ordinary word a day—translated into dozens of languages.

Transparent Language gives words of the day in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and English for Spanish Speakers on its web site or via email. Includes pronunciations in audio files.

French Word-A-Day sends out a thrice-weekly French word, story, and related expressions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday via email.

Spanish-Word-A-Day is available via email and on the web site. Includes an audio pronunciation, synonyms, a sample phrase, pictures, and recipes.

OneLook Word of the Day offers not-quite-ordinary words on the web site only.

MyWordaDay, available on the web site only, positions itself as presenting vocabulary for students who want to "rock the SAT."

Learn Spanish: Word A Day, available on the web site only, features Spanish words, defined and given in example sentences, suitable for the intermediate or advanced Spanish-learner.

Mot du jour—French Word of the Day is available only on the About.com web site.