1. A computer implemented method comprising: parsing a search query of a collection of electronic documents to identify two or more terms in two or more languages; associating the identified two or more terms with the two or more languages; retrieving, from a terms inverted index, at least one terms inverted list corresponding to at least one identified term, the terms inverted index comprising a first plurality of inverted lists mapping terms and associated document positions to documents within the collection of electronic documents; retrieving, from a language inverted index, at least one language inverted list corresponding to each associated language, the language index comprising a second plurality of inverted lists mapping languages to documents within the collection of electronic documents, the language inverted index being separate from the terms inverted index; identifying documents common to the retrieved at least one terms inverted list and to the retrieved language inverted lists; and initiating provision of data characterizing the identified documents.
5. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the language inverted index is a positional inverted index that specifies word position ranges that contain a specific language.