Languages and Linguistics

I spent most of my 20 years in the US Army as a translator of Mandarin Chinese and Japanese documents. I have also studied, to a greater or lesser extent, Taiwanese (Holo/Hokkien) Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Malay/Indonesian, Vietnamese, Spanish, German, and French.

I attended the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, California for 47-week courses in Mandarin (1963), Japanese (1967-68), and Egyptian Arabic (1973). I also spent a year there (1979-80) on a team writing Mandarin Training Extension Courses for interrogators. I lived in Taiwan for 20 months (1964-66) and in Japan for 7.5 years (1968-72 and 1976-79). Unfortunately, I didn't get much chance to use my Arabic, so my skills have completely atrophied.

I haven't worked as a translator since 1980 and I'm not a linguist, but I'm still fascinated by languages and linguistics. I'm very interested in learning about Chinese linguistics, especially dialectology and reconstructions of earlier stages of the language. I'm also interested in Japanese as it relates to the reconstruction of Chinese. The Chinese dialect that interests me most is my late wife's dialect, Taiwanese Holo (also known as Hokkien). I've put up a Web page on the missionary romanization system, which is the most common system used for Holo.

Links
Disclaimer: My listing of commercial sites does not constitute an endorsement of any kind. Visit at your own risk.
Ainu-English Word List
Subscribing to the CHINESE Mail List
Subscribing to the Mandarin Language Learners List
Chinese Language Topics
Japanese Language Topics
Other Languages
On-line Dictionaries for Other Languages
General Language Topics

Please let me know about any broken links or about any links that you think I should add. (Email mike at this domain.)

Also, I don't do much investigation of linked Web sites, other than taking a quick look when someone requests that I add a link to their site, so take reasonable care when dealing with them. Also, please let me know if you encounter any unethical behavior on the part of any of the site owners.

Subscribing to the CHINESE Mail List (Back to Links List)

This is a list for promoting communication among teachers, researchers and students of Chinese. Topics for discussion may include 1) theory and practice in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, 2) linguistics, literature and their applications to teaching of Chinese, 3) technology and teaching, 4) creative classroom activities or 5) any other relevant issues.

To subscribe, send a message to: CHINESE-REQUEST@KENYON.EDU.

The message should consist of the following line only: subscribe chinese <your name>

Subscribing to the Mandarin Language Learners List (Back to Links List)

This list is for people learning Mandarin who want to share tips and practice their
language. This list is provided free of charge by ListBot and is owned by Benjamin Barrett.
It is recommended that you have the capability to read and write Mandarin before
subscribing, but this is not required.

To subscribe, go to http://home.netcom.com/~gogaku/english/mandarin.htm and follow the on-screen instructions.

Links to Chinese Language Topics: (Back to Links List)

Central News Agency (Taiwan)

China Institute

China Links - Marjorie Chan's vast collection of links

Chinese at Wake Forest University

Chinese Character FAQ

Chinese Characters and Culture

Chinese Classical Literature

Chinese-Course.com - Learn Chinese Online

Chinese-English Dictionary Project (CEDICT)

Chinese-Language Information Page

Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA) Home Page

Chinese on the Net

Cihui Chinese Input for Macintosh

Classical Chinese Literature

Clavis Sinica - Chinese language reading and dictionary software

Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese-Korean East Asian Buddhist Technical Terms

Frequency and Stroke Counts of Chinese Characters

Hello! Mandarin - Beijing Online School of Chinese Language

Language and Nationalism in Asia

Language Attitudes Toward Written Taiwanese

Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center - Mandarin Chinese Language and Culture

Nigel Greenwood: Chinese (also French, Greek, Persian, Turkish, IPA, and more)

Sinologic - Software and More

Tianjin University of Technology - Chinese Language Program

University of Southern California - Chinese Language Program

Wenlin Institute: Software for Learning Chinese

Yingzi - Mark Rosenfelder's spoof on using Chinese characters to write English

The Zompist Phrasebook in Chinese (A hilarious guide for the Ugly American in China)

Links to Japanese Language Topics: (Back to Links List)

Serge Flore of the Netherlands has provided a chart of Japanese kana from a Dutch book on Japan that was printed in the year 1733. In addition to "catta canna" (katakana) and "firo canna" (hiragana ), it also includes what is referred to as "imatto canna", probably "yamato kana". These appear to be single examples of what are now referred to as "hentaigana".

Kana Chart from the Netherlands

Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials

Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese-Korean East Asian Buddhist Technical Terms

Japanese Text Initiative - Japanese Text Online

Maruzen Books

Resources for the Study of East Asian Language and Thought

Links to Other Languages: (Back to Links List)

Aynu-English-Russian Dictionary and other materials by Alexander Akulov (Aynu = Ainu)

Hindi Language and Literature

Inquiries into Biblical Languages--Hebrew and Greek

Language Solutions International - Russian Translation

Let's learn English (for Japanese speakers)