LoanwordA loanword (also a loan word, loan-word, or borrowing) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient language, also called the target language). This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because they share an etymological origin; and calques, which involve translation. Loanwords from languages with different scripts are usually transliterated (between scripts), but they are not translated.
CapitalizationCapitalization (American English) or capitalisation (British English) is writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter (uppercase letter) and the remaining letters in lower case, in writing systems with a case distinction. The term also may refer to the choice of the casing applied to text. Conventional writing systems (orthographies) for different languages have different conventions for capitalization, for example, the capitalization of titles. Conventions also vary, to a lesser extent, between different style guides.
Phonetic transcriptionPhonetic transcription (also known as phonetic script or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones) by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. The pronunciation of words in all languages changes over time. However, their written forms (orthography) are often not modified to take account of such changes, and do not accurately represent the pronunciation.
VocabularyA vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word vocabulary originated from the Latin vocabulum, meaning "a word, name." It forms an essential component of language and communication, helping convey thoughts, ideas, emotions, and information. Vocabulary can be oral, written, or signed and can be categorized into two main types: active vocabulary (words one uses regularly) and passive vocabulary (words one recognizes but doesn't use often).
Style guideA style guide is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or manual of style (MoS or MOS). (Typical examples include The Chicago Manual of Style and the AMA Manual of Style.) A short style guide, of several pages or several dozen pages, is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards documented in a style guide can be applied either for general use, or be required usage for an individual publication, a particular organization, or a specific field.
Académie FrançaiseThe Académie Française (akademi fʁɑ̃sɛːz), also known as the French Academy, is the principal French council for matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five académies of the institute.
Proper nounA proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (Africa, Jupiter, Sarah, Tesla, Inc.) as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (continent, planet, person, corporation) and may be used when referring to instances of a specific class (a continent, another planet, these persons, our corporation). Some proper nouns occur in plural form (optionally or exclusively), and then they refer to groups of entities considered as unique (the Hendersons, the Everglades, the Azores, the Pleiades).
Hepburn romanizationHepburn romanization is the main system of romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by American Christian missionary and physician James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of his Japanese–English dictionary. The system is distinct from other romanization methods in its use of English orthography to phonetically transcribe sounds: for example, the syllable ɕi (し) is written as hepburn and tɕa (ちゃ) is written as hepburn, reflecting their spellings in English (compare to nihon-shiki and tya in the more-systematic Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki systems).
Nonstandard dialectA nonstandard dialect or vernacular dialect is a dialect or language variety that has not historically benefited from the institutional support or sanction that a standard dialect has. Like any dialect, a nonstandard dialect has an internally coherent system of grammar. It may be associated with a particular set of vocabulary, and spoken using a variety of accents, styles, and registers. As American linguist John McWhorter describes about a number of dialects spoken in the American South in earlier U.S.
Long sThe long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single s, or one or both of the letters s in a "double s" sequence (e.g., "sinfulness" for "sinfulness" and "possess" or "possess" for "possess", but never *"possess"). The modern letterform is known as the "short", "terminal", or "round" s. In typography, it is known as a type of swash letter, commonly referred to as a "swash s".
