LibGuides: Linguistics: Language Resources

Language Learning

The Department of Linguistics' The Language Center provides instructional language resources to support, foster and promote language learning skills and cultural awareness. The Language Center collection includes print, audio, and digital resources, Mango languages, and is located on the third floor AP&M, Room 3432A.

For more information on the Language Center, please contact Rula Kassicieh at rkassicieh@ucsd.edu

Language Learning Resources

Mango Online Language Learning
Mango offers conversation and film-based tutorials in over 70 languages. Mango can be accessed anywhere with a campus internet connection.

Language Resources

Database:

Ethnologue: Languages of the World
A comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world's known living languages. Since 1951, the Ethnologue has been an active research project involving hundreds of linguists and other researchers around the world. It is widely regarded to be the most comprehensive source of information of its kind. With the academic subscription, you “Get unfettered access to our language and country profiles, maps, statistics, language family trees, and more," but country reports are sold to individuals separately.

Language Atlases:

(print materials are now available for curbside pickup)

Atlas of the World’s Languages.
Ed. R.E. Asher and Christopher Moseley. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. (DeMiller 629 is 1st ed., 1994)
The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World
Consultant eds. Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky. Revised Edition. New York: Facts on File, 2003. (DeMiller 620 is 1st ed., 1996)
Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas.
Eds. Stephen A Wurm, Peter Muhlhausler, Peter Tyron, and Darrell T. Tyron. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. 2 vols. in 3 parts. (DeMiller 631)
Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound .
Labov, William, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006.

Online

Language Atlas of the Pacific Area
This linguistic and cultural atlas of the Pacific languages is based on the UNESCO supported Language Atlas of the Pacific Area (Wurm and Hattori 1981 and 1983).
The World Atlas of Language Structures Online
A large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars) by a team of more than 40 authors. Includes 141 maps with accompanying texts on diverse features (such as vowel inventory size, noun-genitive order, passive constructions, and "hand"/"arm" polysemy). Each map shows between 120 and 1370 languages, each language being represented by a symbol, and different symbols showing different values of the feature. Altogether 2,650 languages are shown on the maps
Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures
APiCS Online contains information on 76 languages and 130 structural features ... overlaps with the book version of the Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS). Like the book atlas, it shows all the maps, and in addition, it shows examples for each feature-language combination. But it does not include the detailed discussion text on each of the 130 structural features that the book atlas contains."
Spanish Language of New Mexico and Southern Colorado : A Linguistic Atlas
EYDES : The Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic Jewry
Will need to request through Interlibrary Loan on this page.

About the World's Languages:

Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages
Geisel P140.C35 2004
Classification and Index of the World’s Languages
Voegelin, Charles Frederick and Florence M. Voegelin. New York: Elsevier, 1977. (DeMiller 591)
Largely superseded by Ruhlen, this nevertheless remains an important reference source, particularly for its index of names.
Compendium of the World’s Languages
Campbell, George L. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. 2 vols. (1st edition is DeMiller 555 and is in the stacks)
A Guide to the World’s Languages. Volume I: Classification.
Ruhlen, Merritt. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987. (DeMiller 587)
A complete genetic classification of all the world’s languages, the most comprehensive and up-to-date presently available.
The World’s Major Languages.
Ed. Bernard Comrie. London: Croom Helm, 2018.
Fifty separate chapters on language groups or languages, each written by an expert.

Other Resources:

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Lanaguage
Dictionary of Varieties of English
more...less...
comprehensive listing of the distinctive dialects and forms of English spoken throughout the contemporary world. Provides an invaluable introduction and guide to current research trends in the field Includes definitions both for the varieties of English and regions they feature, and for terms and concepts derived from a linguistic analysis of these varieties Explores important research issues including the transportation of dialects of English, the rise of 'New Englishes', sociolinguistic investigations of various English-speaking locales, and the study of language contact and change. Reflects our increased awareness of global forms of English, and the advances made in the study of varieties of the language in recent decades.
Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets.
Campbell, George L. London and New York: Routledge, 1997. (DeMiller 557)
The World’s Writing Systems.
Ed. Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. (DeMiller 564)
Provides a historical sketch and the table of signforms of the world’s major scripts. The IPA (1989 revision) in its entirety can be found on the book’s endpapers.

Linguistics: Language Resources

Language Learning

Language Resources

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