Covering the political, social and historical background of each language, Dictionary of Languages offers a unique insight into human culture and communication. Every language with official status is included, as well as all those that have a written literature and 175 'minor' languages with special historical or anthropological interest. We see how, with the rapidly increasing uniformity of our culture as media's influence spreads, more languages have become extinct or are under threat of extinction. The text is highlighted by maps and charts of scripts, while proverbs, anecdotes and quotations reveal the features that make a language unique.

Entries provide definitions and information on the origins, history, and usage of terms of foreign origin in English, including words in common use and artistic and scientific vocabulary.

English to each of the seven languages, and reverse.

An English language dictionary containing over 470,000 entries.

The Oxford English Dictionary is the internationally recognized authority on the evolution of the English language from 1150 to the present day. The Dictionary defines over 500,000 words, making it an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, pronunciation, and history of the English language. This new upgrade version of The Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM offers unparalleled access to the world's most important reference work for the English language. The text of this version has been augmented with the inclusion of the Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series (Volumes 1-3), published in 1993 and 1997, the Bibliography to the Second Edition, and other ancillary material. System requirements: PC with minimum 200 MHz Pentium-class processor; 32 MB RAM (64 MB recommended); 16-speed CD-ROM drive (32-speed recommended); Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 200, or XP (Local administrator rights are required to install and open the OED for the first time on a PC running Windows NT 4 and to install and run the OED on Windows 2000 and XP); 1.1 GB hard disk space to run the OED from the CD-ROM and 1.7 GB to install the CD-ROM to the hard disk: SVGA monitor: 800 x 600 pixels: 16-bit (64k, high color) setting recommended. Please note: for the upgrade, installation requires the use of the OED CD-ROM v2.0.

"Western Lore and Language is the first dictionary to document the extraordinary range of words that are an integral part of the West, old and new. Focusing on words that either originated in the West (forty-niner, skookum, quaking aspen), are used mainly in the West (butte, skink, Spanish sword), or are associated with the West (mesa, rodeo, surfer), Thomas Clark has compiled an entertaining and essential reference of the Western word. This generously illustrated resource gives readers everything they need to talk western: a pinch of Border Spanish, (Tex-Mex, Tejana, Spanglish), some California Mellow, a generous portion of Old West, and a broad scoop of New West (from vineyard cultivation to Valley Girl vapidity). For more serious readers, the dictionary also offers complete lexicological entries for each word - part of speech, pronunciation, definition, source, etymology, dates, cross-references, and editorial comments."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved