Research Guides: Sociolinguistics: Reference Materials

Getting Started

The reference collection is a great place to begin your research. These short relevant articles will give the basic understanding you need to formulate a good research question.

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Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Ethnologue: Languages of the World
"...contains information on 7,102 known living languages."

Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics by Keith Brown (Ed.)
Call Number: REF P 29 E48 2006 (14 vols.)
ISBN: 0080442994
Publication Date: 2005
14 volumes. The most authoritative, up-to-date, comprehensive, and international reference source in its field.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by David Crystal
Call Number: REF P 29 C64 1997
ISBN: 0521550505
Publication Date: 1997
Answers many questions about language such as where language came from, how many languages there are, and how we acquire a first language or learn a second one. From mystical letters to trucker talk, this book presents the variety, structure, history and theory of language in all its diversity.