In the News

Reprinted with permission from San Francisco Chronicle

Orthographic Support

October 6, 2000 - Hey, I didn't know what orthography was, either, until I surfed over to Danville-based yourdictionary.com. It took all of three seconds to get the definition: "the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usage."

So those who think Contra Costans are illiterate should note that this seven-employee startup founded last year was recently chosen "Best of the Web for Reference" by Forbes magazine and also rated a mention in the elitist New Yorker.

It is a cool site, featuring 1,500 dictionaries representing more than 230 languages. The brains behind it are Harvard-educated Paul J.J. Payack of Danville; Robert Beard, former chair of the linguistics department at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.; and venture capitalist George Wilson.

In addition to offering a "word of the day" feature (example: "minacious: menacing, threatening"), browsers can read essays with titles such as "Will I be arrested if I end a sentence in a preposition?" (Short answer: only in Alabama.) Also featured is the Endangered Language Repository, where the curious can learn that there are 12 ways of saying "thank you" in the Lheidli dialect of indigenous British Columbia.

Oh, and there's the Klingon Dictionary for those who still think "Star Trek" was real. (Hey, kids, here's a Klingon profanity to use on your parents if they hassle you: Ghuy'cha').

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle