See the your name in... links page.
You can find people willing to translate short texts for free between many languages at: http://www.freelang.net/translation/
For translations of names, words and short phrases into Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, or Thai, please visit: http://www.tattoos-by-design.co.uk
If you need information about translating/transliterating your name into Tengwar/Elvish/Quenya, please visit: http://www.starchamber.com/paracelsus/elvish/elvish-in-ten-minutes.html
If you want to find out how to write your name in Chinese, try these sites:
http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html
http://www.zhongwen.com/qianming.htm
http://www.transname.com
http://www.char4u.com
http://www.asianbrushart.com
http://www.cafepress.com/chinesenames/
http://www.chinese-tools.com/names
http://www.chinesenames.org
For Japanese translation/transliteration questions, please visit:
http://www.dsfy.com/
http://japanese.about.com/bl50kanji.htm
Free Translation Forums
http://www.freelang.net/translation/ (multilingual)
http://help.berberber.com/free-translation-forums/ (multilingual)
http://www.oasisllc.com/transtrad/forum.htm (multilingual)
http://www.irishgaelictranslator.com/translation/ (Irish)
http://www.russian-translation-pros.com/free-russian-translation-service.html (Russian)
If you're looking Tibetan translations/transliterations for tattoos, please visit:
http://www.inkessential.com
http://devoted.to/tibetantranslation
http://www.tibetan-calligraphy.com
For other questions about the Tibetan language please try:
http://www.learntibetan.net
You can have your name transliterated in to Amharic at:
http://www.amhariconline.com/shop.html
For translations into Ancient Greek, please try:
http://www.translatum.gr/forum/index.php/board,14.0.html
You can request translations between English and Latin at:
http://latinforum.org
For questions about Aramaic, you could try
http://www.learnassyrian.com
Please note: some sites, such as the Aramaic one, have a policy of not providing translations intended for tattoos.
You can find out how to write names and other things in the Tagalog/Baybayin alphabet at: http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/baybayin.html
"Ask the Experts" - contact details of people willing and able to answer questions about a wide range of languages: http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/resources/experts.html
Online translation sites, Online dictionaries, Electronic dictionaries and translators
Maybe - send your images to 
and I will try to identify the writing system and the language it's written in.
I'll also have a go at deciphering the text, but if I'm unable to do so,
I'll post it on my puzzles page.
Please note: quite a few people have asked me about the symbols on the UFO on this site - unfortunately I can't help with this.
Maybe - I'm willing to exchange links with sites that provide free language-related material or tools, and to link to pages containing such material on commercial sites.
Please note: only requests for link exchange addressed to me personally will be answered. My name appears on every page of this site, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find.
Yes, you certainly can.
I leave the type of link up to you, but here are some suggestions for the wording of text links, if you need them:
Here are some Omniglot banners you could use:
If you would like other sizes or colours, just let me know.
I will consider placing links, banners and other kinds of advertisements for companies and organisations providing language, translation, travel or education-related products and services. If you are interested, please let me know what kind of ads you would like to place, where you would like to place them and for how long.
You can contact me at:
You can also advertise via Google AdWords. To find out more, please click on the "Ads by Google" link on the banner below.
If your alphabet looks good and really appeals to me, and is well-presented, I'll consider adding it to Omniglot.
Please send the information below to:
Please save images in GIF format, a maximum width of 600px and a file size of ideally no more than 20K. JPGs are also acceptable but GIFs are better for images with few colours. I you don't have a graphics program on your computer you could an online graphics program.
If you're unable to create images using a graphics program, you can write out your script by hand, then scan it or take a digital photo of it. Please try to write neatly! I suggest you adapt one of the templates in this Excel spreadsheet: Alphabet chart template (Excel, 22K).
Please provide any notes related to your script in text format, not as part of images.
Please note: I don't add every alphabet I receive to this site, but only the ones that really appeal to me. If I decide not to add your alphabet, please don't be downhearted. I encourage you to think creatively about the shapes of letters and other symbols, the ways they fit together, the sounds they represent and the overall look of your script.
The less work I have to do to add your script on my site, the more likely I'll do so.
Alphabets created by visitors to this site.
You can also submit your alphabets to:
http://www.omniglot.com/forum/
http://www.langmaker.com
http://conscripts.s4.bizhat.com/conscripts.html
Free online image and photo editors
http://www.online-image-editor.com
http://www.splashup.com
http://www.imageeditor.net
http://www.cellsea.com/media/
http://www.onlinephototool.com
http://www.picnik.com
http://www.myimager.com
Free and shareware image editing software
http://www.tucows.com
http://www.download.com
http://www.shareware.com
Tutorials on creating images for the web
http://www.widearea.co.uk/designer/
http://www.efuse.com/Design/web_graphics_basics.html
http://www.rochester.edu/ATS/Documentation/WebHelp/Graphics/
Tutorial on creating fonts
http://www.chank.com/howto/
Software for creating/editing fonts
http://users.breathe.com/l-emmett/
http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/
http://www.fontlab.com
Fontstruct - free, easy to use, online font creation tool
http://fontstruct.fontshop.com
Font Image Generator - turn your handwriting in a font
http://www.cheapfontgenerator.com
Software for generating keyboard layouts
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/tools/msklc.mspx
http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/
http://solair.eunet.yu/~janko/engdload.htm
Neographies forum, a place to discuss constructed alphabets
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/neographies/
Only if it's written with an invented writing system that appeals to me.
Good places to submit conlangs are:
http://www.omniglot.com/forum/
http://www.langmaker.com
Probably not, unless you have devised a way of writing a language with a alphabet not usually used to write it. For example, English with the Cyrillic alphabet or Ukrainian with the Latin alphabet.
Probably because I haven't got round to adding it yet or haven't found sufficient information about it. If you can recommend any good sources of information, please do so. Details of the pronunciation of languages are usually the most difficult thing to find.
Those particular symbols represent the 'th' in the and the 'th' in three respectively. They belong to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and you can find out more at:
http://www.unil.ch/ling/page30184.html
http://www.unil.ch/ling/page12580.html (en français)
You could:
21st November 2009
If you want to use the material for non-commercial purposes, you're welcome to do so. Don't forget to mention where the material came from.
If you would like to use material for commercial purposes, such as in books or computer programs, there will be a charge. Please contact me to discuss this.
Let me know if you need images in a different format or with a different colour background. I will do my best to comply with your requirements.
If you would like to copy or re-use any of the language-related articles, please ask the authors for permission. Contact details of the authors can be found at the bottom of each article in most cases, if they're not there, please contact me, and I'll find them for you.
I suggest something along the lines of the following as way to cite Omniglot in your formal papers, assignments or essays:
Ager, Simon. "Omniglot - writing systems and languages of the world".
2009-02-30. www.omniglot.com
Omniglot was first published on the web in November 1998, and was last updated on 21st November 2009.
For further advice on citing online sources, see: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
Unless otherwise indicated, all images on Omniglot are my own creations. The only exceptions to this are the images of writing systems invented by visitors
I use NoteTab Light, a free text editor, to edit the code, and Macromedia Dreamweaver for some site management tasks.
I create most of the script charts in Excel, then take screenshots and save them as images using Macromedia Fireworks. Some charts and other images are created in Fireworks
To create and edit sound files I use Audacity, a free piece of sound editing software available from: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
NoteTab Light is available from: http://www.notetab.com
Most of the fonts I downloaded from various sites on the web. The rest came with programs or operating systems I've bought. A few have been sent to me by people who have invented scripts.
A list of the fonts used on this site
Links to sites where you can download many of these fonts
Download fonts for scripts invented by visitors to Omniglot
A Vietnamese font called Hoang Yen, which you can download here (TrueType, 35K)
Each month an average of 700,000 unique visitors make 850,000 visits to Omniglot and view more than 2 million pages.
Not at the moment. I make changes to this site more or less every day so a static copy would become out of date very quickly. I think the web is the best place for a site of this kind.
I coined the term in 1998 intending to use it as the name of a website design and translation agency I was planning to establish. The agency never really took off and I decided to use the name for this website instead.
The word is a combination of the Latin omnis (all) and the Greek γλωσσα (glossa - tongue/language) and means 'all languages'. It is similar to polyglot, 'someone who speaks many languages', and monoglot, 'someone who speaks only one language', and could also mean 'someone who speaks all languages'. If it was made entirely from Greek roots it would be 'panglot', but I prefer the sound of omniglot.
It started life back in 1998 as part of another website which no longer exists. I built the other website to promote my web design and translation services and included some information about how to build multilingual websites. While researching the mulitilingual section I discovered a wealth of information about languages and writing systems and thought it would be interesting learn more. After reading numerous books and websites about the subject I decided to add the information to my website, which eventually developed into the site you see today.
I've been interested in languages for a long time: at school I learnt French and German, then at university I studied Chinese and Japanese. Since then I have taught myself quite a few other languages, including Spanish, Welsh and Irish.
Details of my language learning adventures
You can contact me by email at:
Or via Skype or Yahoo Messenger - my username for both is omniglot.
If you want to contact me via snailmail, email me and I'll send you the details.
You can write to me in English, français, Deutsch, español, italiano, português, Esperanto, Cymraeg, Gaeilge, Gàidhlig, Gaelg, 中文 (繁體或简体) or 日本語. I can read all these languages, but can't write them equally well, so may reply in English.
Omniglot is brought to you by me, Simon Ager. I started putting the site together in 1998 and have maintained and developed it in my sparetime since then. In 2008 Omniglot became a limited company and is now my main source of income. Many other people have made contributions of new material, corrections and suggestions, for which I'm profoundly grateful.
Sorry, you don't - there is no Omniglot database of translators.
There are databases of translators at: www.proz.com, www.translatorsbase.com and www.translatorstown.com
If you are a translator, interpreter or work with languages in some other capacity, please consider submitting an article to my language-related articles section.
There are currently no vacancies at Omniglot, and no courses are offered here at the moment.
For jobs involving languages, please try this page.
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Copyright 1998- Simon Ager