Omniglot book store

Dictionary of Languages

by Andrew Dalby

- provides detailed information about over 400 languages, including all those with official status and an additional 175 'minor' languages of special anthropological or historical interest. Also includes basic script charts for most alphabets and other writing systems. This tome provided the main source of inspiration for this site and is a major source of information.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

The World's Major Languages

by Bernard Comrie

- a guide to the historical development, grammar, sound systems and writing systems of the world's major languages and language families, focusing particularly on the Indo-European languages.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Les langages de l'humanité

de Michel Malherbe

- une encyclopédie des 3.000 langues parlées dans le monde. Michel Malherbe qui, par ses activités professionnelles et, aussi, par curiosité personnelle, a visité plus de 120 pays, a tenu la gageure de présenter une image globale et moderne de toutes les langues parlées dans le monde, en ne négligeant aucun des aspects susceptibles d'intéresser un esprit curieux d'acquérir une culture générale dans ce domaine mal connu

Achetez de: Amazon.fr

Langues sans frontières : A la découverte des langues de l'Europe

de Georges Kersaudy

- Expert, linguiste, et surtout polyglotte passionné, Georges Kersaudy nous entraîne ici dans un étonnant voyage de découverte, au fil d'une analyse comparative et jubilatoire des alphabets, des sons et des vocables des langues de l'Europe.

Achetez de: Amazon.fr

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language

by David Crystal

- an excellent, entertaining and comprehensive general reference book on all aspects of language

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Empires of the Word - A Language History of the World

by Ostler Nicholas

- a fascinating exploration of the history of the world's major languages: i.e. those that have spread beyond their original homelands. Covers the history of language since the invention of writing in Sumeria about 5,000 years ago to the present day. Seeks to explain why some languages, such as English, Spanish and Arabic, have spread to many countries and continients, while others, such as Dutch, German and Phoenician, haven't.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Language and the Internet

by David Crystal

- an entertaining and informative study of the myriad ways language is change on the internet.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Language Play

by David Crystal

- an interesting exploration of the many ways in which we play with language, including puns, jokes, rhymes and nonsense.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Language Myths

by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill (Editors)

- an accessible and interesting collection of essays which address common misconceptions about language and languages, such as "Women Talk Too Much" and "In the Appalachians They Speak Like Shakespeare".

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Inside Language

by Vivian J, Cook

- an introduction to the study of language with information on grammar, pronunciation, writing and words. Also explores childhood language acquisition and language handicaps.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

The Symbolic Species

by Terence Deacon

- a study of the relationships between language and the brain which begins with a question posed by a 7-year-old child: Why can't animals talk?

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Words in the Mind

by Jean Aitchinson

- this book deals with words, and how humans learn them, remember them, understand them, and find the ones they want. It discusses the structure and content of the human word-store or "mental lexicon", with particular reference to the spoken language of native English speakers.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Language Change: Progress or Decay?

by Jean Aitchinson

- a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change. It discusses where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes which occurred long ago, and those currently in progress.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

The Language Instinct

by Steven Pinker

- argues that some aspects of language are hard-wired in the brain, and that we wouldn't be able to learn any language overwise.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Words and Rules

by Steven Pinker

- explores regular and irregular patterns in language and what they reveal about language and the mind.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

A Mouthful of Air

by Anthony Burgess

- a survey of the English language, how it operates now, how it reached its present situation and how it will develop in the future. Burgess writes on Shakespeare's pronunciation, on English newly-generated abroad, on low-life language and on the place of English in the world family of languages.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

The Loom of Language

by Frederick Bodmer

- a wide-ranging study of all aspects of language, including its origins and development through history, together with a good overview of the Indo-European and Near East languages.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

In Other Words

by Christopher J. Moore

- a languguage lovers guide to the most intriguing words around the world

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

The Meaning of Tingo

by Adam Jacot de Boinod

- an interesting and amusing collection of unusual words from hundreds of different languages. The word tingo apparently comes from Easter Island and means "to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them".

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Talk Talk Talk : Decoding the Mysteries of Speech

by Jay Ingram

- a witty and knowledgeable investigation into the sociology and science of talking which explores the brain processes responsible for this unique skill, traces the language roots of North America, and discusses the speech differences between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Your Mother's Tongue

by Stephen Burgen

- a study of the insults and swearwords used in Europe which provides fascinating insights into the differing taboos of various European cultures.

An invaluable book if you you want to learn how to be rude in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Welsh, Romani, Catalan, Corsican, Danish, Dutch, Basque, Finnish, Flemish, Galician, Greek, Swedish, Yiddish or Pied-Noir.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Bad Language

by Lars-Gunnar Andersson & Peter Trudgill

- a study of slang, swearing, dialects, accents and jargon.

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk