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Natural

The Open Directory Natural Languages section organizes languages according to a genetic classification. You may submit sites to the language family category, or, if you are familiar with the topic, can be neutral and enjoy collaboration, we invite you to apply to be an editor and build an existing or entirely new language category yourself! Afro-Asiatic: Hebrew, Akkadian, Arabic, Coptic, Somali, Hausa, Aramaic, Maltese, Egyptian Hieroglyphs Austro-Tai: Hawaiian, Indonesian, Tagalog, Cebuano, Javanese, Balinese, Malay, Malagasy, Thai, Lao, Fijian, Tongan, Tahitian, Samoan, Maori, Javanese Baltic: Latvian, Lithuanian, Prussian, Suldovian Celtic: Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Gaulish, Irish, Manx Finno-Ugric: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian, Sami/Lapp, Nenets, Livonian, Karelian, Vodian, Vepsian, Cheremis, Votyak, Komi, Vogul, Ostyak, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup. Germanic Languages: Dutch, English, German, Yiddish, Gothic, Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Frisian, Afrikaans Hellenic: Ancient, Koine, and Modern Greek Indo-Iranian: Farsi/Persian, Urdu/Hindi, Romany/Gypsy, Kurdish, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati Romance: French, Italian, Romanian, Asturian, Spanish, Portuguese, Ladino, Rumansch, Catalan, Sardinian, Galician, Occitan, Valencian, Sardinian, Walloon Italic: Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian, Volscian, Picene, Faliscan and Latin Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and any other Chinese dialect, Tibetan, Burmese, Sharpa, Miao, Yao, Hakka Slavic: Plish, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Czech, Sorbian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Old Church Slavonic, Pidgins and Creoles: Contact languages such as Tok Pisin, Krio, Rasta Patois, Kreyol, Papiamentu, Bazaar and Baba Malay, Hawaiian Pidgin, Sango, Lingala, Cajun, Michif, Chinook Jargon Niger-Kordofanian: Swahili, Bantu, Wolof, Fulani, Zulu, Mandink, Kongo, Shiyeye, Akan, Bamileke, Ewe, Yoruba Altaic: Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Tatar, Kazakh Dravidian: Tamil, Telegu Austro-Asiatic: Khmer, Muong, Vietnamese

Your business will not be listed here. Please send commercial sites for translation and interpreting companies, referral agencies, databases, and individual freelancers to the Translation section of the Directory, where sites will be listed once.

Inappropriately located or multiple submissions throughout the directory will result in a delay of your site being published.

If your site is not in English, please send it to the appropriate category in the World section of the Directory.

If your site features a Non-English Dictionary, please send it to the appropriate language within that section of the Directory.

Afro-Asiatic

Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken by various communities from a large area in West Africa centered around Lake Chad (Chadic), all the way across North Africa (Berber) into Egypt (Egyptian), Ethiopia, and Somalia, and down the Great Rift Valley to the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro (Cushitic / Omotic). The family crosses over into Western Asia (Semitic), and is also spoken in the Middle East through Palestine and Syria, down around the Arabian Peninsula into Yemen and Oman, and stretching into Iraq. Source

This page is for helpful links to websites which relate to the Arabic language - whether Classical, Modern or dialects. Please submit only websites closely related to the Arabic language itself, and not any website in Arabic.

Ainu

Ainu, also known as Ainu Itak, is a language isolate spoken by no more than 15 remaining fluent speakers on Hokkaido Island in Japan and Sakhalin Island in Russia. There are two primary dialects, Tsishima and Sakhalin.

Algic

The following Algic Languages tree is based on the information in the Ethnologue.

Algic Languages

Algonquian Stock

Central Family

Cree Branch

Atikamekw (Canada)
Central Cree (Canada)
Coastal Eastern Cree (Canada)
Inland Eastern Cree (Canada)
Western Cree (Canada)
Montagnais (Canada)

Ojibwa Branch

Algonquin (Canada)
Eastern Ojibwa (Canada)
Northern Ojibwa (Canada)
Western Ojibwa (Canada)
Kikapoo (USA)
Menomini (USA)
Mesquakie (USA)
Miami (USA)
Potawatomi (USA)
Shawnee (USA)

Eastern Family

Abenaki-Penobscot (USA)
Malecite-Passamaquoddy (Canada)
Mi'kmaq (Canada)
Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett (USA)
Munsee (Canada)
Nanticoke (USA)
Naskapi (Canada)
Powhatan (USA)
Unami (USA)
Wampanoag (USA)

Plains Family

Blackfeet (USA)
Cheyenne (USA)

Arapaho Branch

Arapaho (USA)
Gros Ventre (USA)

Unclassified Algic Family

Lumbee (USA)

Wiyot Stock

Wiyot (USA)

Yurok Stock

Yurok (USA)

Sites about the language, Algonquin, go in the subcategory Algonquin. Sites about the Algonquian (or Algic) language family go here. It is just like German and Germanic languages. There are many Algonquian languages, Algonquin is only one.

Australian

This is the subcategory for languages native to Australia and the Torres Straits Islands. There are approximately 258 known languages in this family, a large percentage of which are endangered or extinct. The major families of languages that will be found underneath this category are: Bunaban Burarran Daly Djamindjungan Djeragan Enindhilyagwa Gagudjuan Garawan Gungaraganyan Gunwingguan Laragiyan Mangerrian Maran Nyulnyulan Pama-Nyungan Tiwian West Barkly Wororan Yiwaidjan

Austronesian

The Austronesian language family is one of the most widely, geographically distributed language groups extending from Madagascar in the west, Easter Island in the east, Hawai`i in the north and New Zealand in the south. The Austronesian language family comprises of four main branches: Atayalic, Paiwanic, Tsouic and Malayo-Polynesian, the first three of which are found on the island of Formosa (or Taiwan), and therefore placed beneath the top-level category "Formosan". All other languages fall beneath Malayo-Polynesian, which has been subdivided into Eastern, Central and Western language groups.

Please only submit Web pages that are specific to the indigenous languages of Taiwan. Web pages specfic to the Taiwanese dialect of Chinese should be submitted to Science/Social_Sciences/Language_and_Linguistics/Natural_Languages/Sino-Tibetan/Taiwanese.

Burushaski

Burushaski is a language isolate spoken by approximately 60,000 people primarily in Pakistan and parts of India. It is also known as Brushaski, Burushaki, Burucaki, Burushki, Burucaski, Biltum, Khajuna and Kunjut.

Caucasian

Caucasian languages are a group of about forty languages native to the Caucasus region. Spoken in the Northern Caucasia, Transcaucasia and Turkey. Small groups of speakers of Caucasian languages also live in Syria, Iran and other countries of the Near East. Among the Caucasian languages, only Georgian has ancient literary traditions. Udin has apparently also been a written language in the past. Beginning from the late Middle Ages there were attempts to use the Arab script for writing in a number of Caucasian languages. After the revolution, literary languages were created for Abaza, Adyghe, Avar, Chechen, Dargi, Ingush, Kabardin (Circassian), Lak, Lezghian, and Tabasaran--first on the basis of the Arab and Latin, from the late 1930's, Russian script. During the last years attempts have been made to create writing systems for Aghul, Andi, Bezhta, Dido, Rutul and Tsakhur. Source

Open to non-commercial English-language or multilingual sites only dealing strictly with Caucasian languages.

If your site is in langauges other than English, please send it to the appropriate category in the World section of the directory.

If your site is advertising a Translation Business, please send it to that section of the directory.

If your site features the Caucasus Region, please send it to that category.

If your site deals with Caucasian Peoples, please send it to that category.

Classical Languages

Classical languages are generally considered to be those that have an extensive ancient literature. Some authorities also consider that their literary, cultural or religious influence should extend to modern societies.

Dravidian

This category is for websites relating to Tamil language, including literature, grammar, linguistics, lessons and history of the language.

Sites about Tamil ethnicity and Tamil Nadu should be submitted to those categories.

Only sites with at least some content in English will be included in the category. Sites in Tamil (only) should be submitted to World:Tamil

Elamite

An ancient little-known language isolate spoken in SW Persia.

Eskimo-Aleutian

The following Eskimo-Aleutian Languages tree is based on the information in the Ethnologue.

Eskimo-Aleut Languages

Aleut Stock

Aleut (USA)

Eskimo Stock

Inuit Family

Eastern Canadian Inuktitut (Canada)
Western Canadian (Canada)
Greenlandic Inuktitut (Greenland)
North Alaskan (USA)
Northwest Alaska Iñupiat (USA)

Yupik Family

Alaskan Branch

Central Yupik (USA)
Pacific Gulf Yupik (USA)

Siberian Branch

Central Siberian Yupik (USA)
Naukan Yupik (Russia, Asia)
Sirenik Yupik (Russia, Asia)

Hokan

The following Hokan Languages tree is taken from the Ethnologue.

Hokan Languages

Esselen-Yuman Stock

Yuman Family

Cochimí Branch

Cochimí (Mexico)

Delta-Californian Branch

Cocopa (Mexico)
Kumiái (Mexico)

Kiliwa Branch

Kiliwi (Mexico)

Pai Branch

Paipai (Mexico)

River Yuman Branch

Maricopa (USA)
Mojave (USA)
Quechan (USA)

Upland Yuman Branch

Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai (USA)

Northern Stock

Karok-Shasta Family

Shasta-Palaihninan Branch

Palaihninan Group

Achumawi (USA)
Atsugewi (USA)

Shastan Group

Shasta (USA)
Karok (USA)

Pomo Family

Russian River and Eastern Branch

Eastern Group

Eastern Pomo (USA)

Russian River Group

Northeastern Pomo (USA)
Northern Pomo (USA)
Southern Pomo (USA)
Central Pomo (USA)
Southeastern Pomo (USA)
Kashaya (USA)

Yana Family

Yana (USA)

Salinan-Seri Stock

Chumash (USA)
Salinan (USA)
Seri (Mexico)

Tequistlatecan Stock

Highland Chontal Of Oaxaca (Mexico)
Lowland Chontal Of Oaxaca (Mexico)

Washo Stock

Washo (USA)

Please submit general sites for the Karuk people to the Karuk Tribe category.

Indo-European

The first systematic theory of the relationships between human languages began when Sir William Jones proposed in 1788 that Greek and Latin, the classical languages of Europe, and Sanskrit, the classical language of India, had all descended from a common source. The evidence for this came from both the structure of the languages -- Sanskrit grammar has similarities to Greek and to nothing else -- and the vobcabulary of the languages. Thus, "father" in English compares to "Vater" in German, "pater" in Latin, "patêr" in Greek, "pitr." in Sanskrit, "pedar" in Persian, etc. On the other hand, "father" in Arabic is "ab," which hardly seems like any of the others. This became the theory of Indo-European languages, and today the hypothetical language that would be the common source for all Indo-European languages is called Proto-Indo-European. Source

Please include sites with general information on Indo-European, and portals with collections of links to various aspects of the Indo-European language family. Sites that concentrate on the origin of the Indo-European languages, the nature of their common ancestor, or on the geographical location, culture or archaeology of the people who spoke this ancestral language, should be listed under Science: Social Sciences: Linguistics: Languages: Natural: Indo-European: Proto-Indo-European.

Iroquoian

The following Iroquoian Languages tree is based on the information in the Ethnologue.

Iroquoian Languages

Iroquoian Stock

Northern Iroquoian Family

Laurentian (Canada)

Five Nations Branch

Mohawk (Canada)
Oneida (Canada)
Onondaga (Canada)
Cayuga (Canada)
Seneca (USA)

Huron Branch

Wyandot (USA)

Tuscarora-Nottoway Branch

Tuscarora (Canada)

Southern Iroquoian Family

Tsalagi (USA)

Please submit sites about Seneca language in general to http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Language_and_Linguistics/Natural_Languages/Iroquoian_Languages/Seneca/.

Japanese

This category is dedicated to the Japanese language, its complicated written structure of Kanji, Katakana, and Hiragana; its numerous dialects, grammar, and all other aspects of communication in Japanese.

Languages of Africa

Web pages dealing with languages belonging to more than one language family in Africa.

Languages of Eurasia

Linguistically oriented web pages devoted to languages belonging to more than one language family of Europe and/or Asia. When the languages are restricted to the Middle East (possibly including Anatolia, Egypt and adjacent parts of Africa), the site should be classified in the Languages of the Middle East cat.

Languages of the Americas

Linguistic material related to languages belonging to more than one native language family of North, Central, or South America, or of the Caribbean.

Languages of the Middle East

This subcat should be reserved to sites discussing languages belonging to more than one family that are spoken, or used to be spoken, in the Middle East (today's Iran, and all parts of Asia to the west and/or southwest of Iran, including Anatolia and adjacent islands) as well as in Egypt and other parts of the Nile valley. If the languages discussed extend to Central Asia, the Caucasus or parts of Africa outside the Nile valley, this subcat should no longer be considered appropriate.

Misumalpan

Misumalpan languages is a small family of American Indian languages, spoken mostly in eastern Nicaragua and in some adjacent areas of Central America. The biggest and the most know language of this family is Miskito.

Na-Dene

Created by terpgrrl 12/25/00

Na-Dene Languages

Haida Stock

Haida (Canada)

Tlingit Stock

Tlingit (USA)

Nuclear Na-Dene Stock

Eyak Family

Eyak (USA)

Athapaskan Family

Apachean Branch

Kiowa Apache (USA)

Eastern Navajo-Apache Group

Jicarilla Apache (USA)
Lipan Apache (USA)
Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache (USA)

Western Navajo-Apache Group

Western Apache (USA)
Navaho (USA)

Canadian Branch

Beaver-Sekan Group

Beaver (Canada)
Sekani (Canada)

Carrier-Chilcotin Group

Babine (Canada)
Southern Carrier (Canada)
Carrier (Canada)
Chilcotin (Canada)

Han-Kutchin Group

Gwich'in (USA)
Han (USA)

Hare-Chipewyan Group

Chipewyan (Canada)
Dogrib (Canada)
Slavey (Canada)

Sarcee Group

Sarsi (Canada)

Ingalik-Koyukon Branch

Ingalik Group

Degexit'an (USA)

Koyukon-Holikachuk Group

Holikachuk (USA)
Koyukon (USA)

California Pacific Coast Group

Hupa (USA)
Kato (USA)
Mattole (USA)
Wailaki (USA)

Oregon Pacific Coast Group

Chetco (USA)
Coquille (USA)
Galice (USA)
Tolowa (USA)
Tututni (USA)

Tahltan-Kaska Branch

Kaska (Canada)
Tagish (Canada)
Tahltan (Canada)

Tanaina-Ahtna Branch

Ahtena (USA)
Tanaina (USA)

Tanana-Upper Kuskokwim Branch

Upper Tanana (USA)
Tanana (USA)
Upper Kuskokwim (USA)

Tutchone Branch

Tutchone (Canada)

Please submit sites related to the Navajo people to the Navajo Tribe category.

Niger-Kordofanian

The Niger-Kordofanian family of languages is one of several language families spoken in Africa. It has two branches, Niger-Congo and Kordofanian. The Kordofanian languages are spoken primarily in Sudan. Niger-Congo languages are spoken throughout southern and central Africa. Information taken from "African languages," Bartleby.com. http://www.bartleby.com/65/af/Africanlng.html

Nilo-Saharan

Linguistic material on the Nilo-Sahara language phylum, all of whose member languages are spoken in East-Central Africa.

Oto-Manguean

Oto-Manguean languages are a large family of Native American languages spoken in Mexico. The family consists of the smaller groups of: Oto-Pamean languages Popolocan languages Mixtecan languages Zapotecan languages Manguean languages (or Chiapanec-Manguean languages) Chinantecan languages The Amuzgo isolate

Papuan

Anything related to the Papuan (or non-Austronesian) languages. These languages are found primarily ont he island of New Guinea, but also on neighboring islands in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands. Papuan languages are not necessarily genetically related to each other but are characterized by having been established prior to the migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples. Papuan languages often have complex grammars, especially compared to their neighboring Austronesian languages.

Only submit pages relating to Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages.

Penutian

Please submit sites related to Chinook Jargon to that category.

Pidgins and Creoles

Pidgins are languages that occur when people from two different languages come into contact and form a simplified hybrid language. If a pidgin language lasts long enough, eventually people are born who use that language as their first language; it then becomes known as a creole. Languages are organized in this category by acrolect (i.e., the contact language with the higher prestige). The acrolect is often European, reflecting the history of colonization, but this is not always the case.

This category is not for pure or "Old Chinook". If your site relates to the original Penutian language spoken by Northwest Native Americans, please submit it to Chinook.

Pre-Greek

Material on the so-far unnamed non-Indo-European language(s) that may have been spoken in Greece and adjacent areas before the arrival of the Greeks. Languages of this group may have survived well into classical times.

Keep in mind that only languages that are clearly non-Indo-European should be included here.

Quechumaran

For the languages of the Andes: Quechua, Aymara.

more information (editors only)

Salish

Web pages dealing with the Salish family, or any one of the languages belonging to it. Languages of this family are spoken, or used to be spoken, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, both in Canada and the US.

Sign Languages

Sites related to

Signed languages used in deaf communities.
Sign systems used in contact between deaf and hearing people.
Signing to hearing children as a language tool.
The gestural language used between Native American tribes.

Please submit sites specifically about American Sign Language or ASL to that category only.

Submit sites relating to the Interpreting profession, to Interpreting.

Sino-Tibetan

Please submit sites dealing with the Hakka Chinese language in this category.

Siouan

The following Siouan Languages tree is based on the information in the Ethnologue.

Siouan Languages

Catawba Stock

Catawba (USA)

Siouan Proper Stock

Central Family

Mandan Branch

Mandan (USA)

Mississippi Valley Branch

Chiwere Group

Iowa-Otoe (USA)

Dakota Group

Assiniboine (Canada)
Lahkota (USA)
Stoney (Canada)

Dhegiha Group

Kansa (USA)
Omaha-Ponca (USA)
Osage (USA)
Quapaw (USA)

Winnebago Group

Hocák (USA)

Dakota Group

Dakota (USA)

Missouri Valley Family

Crow (USA)
Hidatsa (USA)

Southeastern Family

Biloxi-Ofo Group

Biloxi (USA)
Ofo (USA)

Tutelo Group

Tutelo (USA)

Please submit sites related to the history and culture of Lakota speakers or the Sioux Nation to that category.

Sumerian

Sumerian was the first written language of ancient Mesopotamia. Its writing was the Cuneiform script, which came to be used for many other languages of the Middle East and Anatolia.

Any pages dealing with the Sumerian language may be submitted here.

Uralic

The members of the Finno-Ugric (or Uralic) language family are: Baltic-Finnic group: Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Ludic/Ludian, Veps/Vepsian, Ingrian, Livonian and Votic/Votian; Sami (Lapp): a group of dialects or closely related languages; Mari (Cheremis); Mordvin: Erzya and Moksha; Permic/Permian group: Komi (Zyryan), Permyak and Udmurt (Votyak); Ugric group: Hungarian, Khanty (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul); Samoyedic group: Nenets (Yurak), Enets (Yenisey Samoyed), Nganasan (Tavgy) and Selkup (Ostyak Samoyed). The Samoyedic group is traditionally classified as a separate language family constituting the Uralic group together with Finno-Ugric languages. However, many linguists now use the terms "Finno-Ugric" and "Uralic" as synonyms, and this is also the naming convention used in the ODP.