This encyclopedia of writing systems and languages is a longtime labor of love of Simon Ager, an Englishman who now lives in Wales. He started the site way back in the Internet dark ages of 1998.

Omniglot contains information on more than 180 writing systems and over 600 (!) languages. The labor that has gone into it is beyond astonishing.

I often end up on Omniglot when I am doing research on writing systems. Another favorite section is Useful Phrases, which you can search by gobs of languages or by individual phrase, such as the all-important “Please speak more slowly”!

With this website, Mr. Ager has created something special—a real service to language learners and lovers around the world.