Omniglot () is an
online encyclopedia
An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, or a digital encyclopedia, is an encyclopedia accessible through the internet. Examples include Wikipedia and ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.
Digitization of old content
In January 199 ...
focused on languages and writing systems.
Etymology
The name "Omniglot" comes from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
prefix ''omnis'' (meaning "all") and the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
root γλωσσα (''glossa'', meaning "tongue").
History
The website was launched by British author Simon Ager in 1998, originally intended to be a web design and translation service. As Ager collected and added more information about languages and various writing systems, the project evolved into an encyclopedia.
It provides reference materials for 341 written scripts used in different languages,
over 880 constructed, adapted and fictional scripts, and materials for learning languages.
It also has reference materials in numerous languages.
Its material was the source for a compendium of characters used for development of artificial intelligence, the Omniglot Challenge.
The Omniglot compendium has been used widely since it was first released.
As of December 2021, the number of languages detailed on the site is over 1,600.
See also
*
List of online encyclopedias
This is a list of well-known online encyclopedias—i.e., encyclopedias accessible or formerly accessible on the Internet.
The largest online encyclopedias are general reference works, though there are also many specialized ones. Some online ency ...
*
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...
References
{{Reflist
Internet properties established in 1998
British online encyclopedias
Linguistics websites