# what is the best way to determine what language an online text is in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412 "2010-02-18T00:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Laalune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Laalune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laalune)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/21 "2010-02-20T22:43:04Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > If you go to [http://translate.google.com/](http://translate.google.com/), select English as the target language, then select “detect language” as the source, it usually gets it right. > > However, it doesn’t tell you what the feckin’ language was. :smack: Yes, it does, right above the translation, on the blueish field. 🙂 But it only knows about 50 languages. ---
**Author:** ![SleepyDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@SleepyDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SleepyDuck)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/22 "2010-02-21T06:16:52Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > I was search for something today and ended up at a Wikipedia site in an unknown language. The language was very similar to one I knew, but I could tell that it was not the language that I knew. I had to do a bit of searching to finally figure it out. > > For those of you that like puzzles, here is a sample page in that language: > [Denis Diderot - Wikipedia](http://roa-tara.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot) > > and the language is, I believe, > > [Tarantino](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantino_language) > > So suppose I find a text in an unknown language. What is the easiest way to determine what language the text is in? Is there a website where I can type in (or copy and paste) some text, and be told the language for that text? Well, I’m no linguist, but I do like puzzles; Although it dosen’t answer your question in general, your sample page’s URL led me to [here](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Language_codes) within two clicks. My answer, without reading your spoiler: [Tarantino](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantino_language) 🆒 And yes, my first instinct was to make a joke about it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/23 "2010-02-21T13:44:52Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Will [this](http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glesga) do for the time being? This part [Glesga - Wikipedia](http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glesga#Glaswegian) is fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/24 "2010-02-21T14:11:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > This part [Glesga - Wikipedia](http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glesga#Glaswegian) is fantastic. Does Scots really have that many words in common with English? I’d never noticed. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/25 "2010-02-21T15:05:00Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > The Library of Congress doesn’t recognise a language called Tarantino. I would just call it Italian. Yeah. I looked at that and could immediately say: Some Italian dialect-- not standard, but not too different. Never even heard of Tarantino. As for identifying languages, I think Johanna’s advice is the best. It’s what I would do, so it must be right! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412/26 "2010-02-22T14:21:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Does Scots really have that many words in common with English? I’d never noticed. Scots does - it’s a dialect of English. Scottish Gaelic, [not so much](http://gd.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaschu). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-determine-what-language-an-online-text-is-in/529412.md?page=1)