Saturday, September 1, 2012

Lexicity

http://www.lexicity.com/

This website is an aggregator for web-based resources for the following languages:
Akkadian, Aramaic, Coptic, Egyptian, Hebrew, Latin, Old Church Slavonic, Old English, Old Norse, Sanskrit, Syriac, and Ugaritic.

From the web site:
Learning an ancient language is difficult, but it becomes more difficult if one isn't part of a high school or college class or doesn't have access to the more advanced resources of a university library. The natural solution is the internet, where some of those advanced resources are housed and where there is an abundance of materials intended to facilitate one's study.

However, there are a few problems when turning to the internet. First, if one is a novice in a language, it can be difficult to discern between resources that are actually useful and that are just filler. This problem is compounded when one has never learned an ancient language of any kind, as is often the case when students begin to study Latin or Greek.

Another problem is that the resources can be very difficult to find. While contemporary dictionary and lexical projects are usually very accessible, there are other ancient language resources which are buried in the depths of Google searches, having been created long ago for an audience which has since moved on. If the resources can't be found, they as good as non-existent for frustrated students.

The solution to these problems is to unite all the resources under a single banner after reviewing them to see which are most useful. Lexicity has done this for 16 of the most prominent ancient languages. All the ancient language resources we feature are free and available to anyone; they're easy to navigate, easy to sort, and easy to access. You don't need to be an expert or be willing to wade through 50 pages of search engine results - just visit our languages page to get started.

So get started. Visit the language of your choice and get a grammar. Take advantage of extra resources like verb and noun charts, and look up anything you don't understand in the dictionaries. Visit the forum, chat with our toolbar at the bottom, and tell your friends. Many people have always wanted to give an ancient language a try; as Lexicity has shown, there won't ever be a better time.

No comments: