Language Finger

• Purpose & Completeness
  
• Arrangement
  
• About Language Names, Dialects, etc.
  
• Statistics
  
• About the Comprehensive Index
  
• Go directly to INDEX
  
• General Bibliography
  
• How to Contact Compiler
  

• About "Language Finger"
  
• Natural Languages (Grouped by Family)
  
• Pidgins & Creoles
  
• Communication Systems for Persons with Disabilities
  
• Literary Languages
  
• Other Invented & Artificial Languages (except Computer Languages)
  
• Simplified Languages
  
• Specialized Writing Systems
  
• Computer Languages
  
• Miscellaneous Languages
  

Although presently incomplete, this site is continually being updated. At present, only holdings for the Mansfield Library are included; very few media items are as yet included. At present also, only items having Dewey call numbers have been indexed; as yet, almost no items having other kinds of call numbers are included. Additional languages and additional holdings are being added frequently. If what you seek isn't here one day, try again later.

Although it is possible to limit search results by language in our Library Catalog, as well as by language subject headings, both of these depend on language codes or headings assigned to the work. Thus, works with only a portion in a given language, many multilingual works, and works containing text or information on a given language but having some other emphasis cannot be found except via this site. Limiting a search by language in the Library Catalog may not retrieve any items, for various reasons. Also, for some groups of languages, a single language code covers the whole group -- this is not adequate for researchers. For many works, the only language access is via subject -- IF that's the subject of the work. Although the system allows searching by language, such a search is dependent on what language codes were put into the descriptive record. Finally, not all library holdings are yet included in our Library Catalog, and a high percentage of those remaining to be added are foreign-language items. These latter items are included in this index. For all these reasons, this Language Finger will continue to be needed.

Each entry includes Mansfield Library call number, author(s) (if any), title, city where published, publisher, date, "RID" (or record idenfier) number (may be used to find the bibliographic record in the Library Catalog), and item number (assigned for purposes of this site). Some entries may also have Library of Congress subject headings, notes, physical description of the item, or a brief indication of the nature of the language material. An asterisk preceding a title or author indicates that the original catalog record for this item was not written in the Latin alphabet. A fuller record for most items can be found in the Library Catalog; this site is merely intended as a finding aid.

Dialects have not been separated from their root language unless distinct enough to be recognized by some researchers as separate languages.

A brief introduction to each language is given preceding the works listed. For natural languages, this introduction includes the name of the language family to which the language belongs, in parentheses following the name of the particular language.

Allen, C. G. (Charles Geoffry).  A manual of European languages for librarians.
  	2nd ed.  New Providence, NJ : Bowker-Saur, 1999.

Bloomfield, Leonard.  Language.  New York : Holt, c1933.

The Book of a thousand tongues : being some account of the translation and
	publication of all or part of the Holy Scriptures into more than a thousand
	languages and dialects with over 1100 examples from the text.  Edited by
	Eric M. North.  Detroit : Tower Books, 1971.

Breton, Roland J.-L.  Geolinguistics : language dynamics and ethnolinguistic
 	geography.  Translated and expanded by Harold F. Schiffman.  Ottawa : 
	University of Ottawa Press, c1991.

Commins, Dorothy.  Lullabies of the world.  New York : Random House, 1967.

Dalby, Andrew.  Dictionary of languages : the definitive reference to more than 400
	languages.  New York : Columbia University Press, c1998.

Dixon, R. M. W.  The rise and fall of languages.  Cambridge, England ; New York :
	Cambridge University Press, c1997.

Ethnologue : languages of the world, edited by Barbara F. Grimes.  13th ed.  
	Dallas, Tex. :   Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1996.
	http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/ethnologue.html

Fischer, Steven Roger.  Glyph-breaker.  New York : Copernicus, c1997.

Friedrich, Johannes.  Extinct languages.  New York : Philosophical Library, c1957.

Hilprecht, H.V.  A new gallery of illustrations portraying recent archaeological
	excavations and discoveries in Babylonia, Egypt, Arabia, Syria and Asia
	Minor.  Rev.  Philadelphia, Pa. : Holman, c1897.

Ingram, Jay.  Talk, talk, talk : decoding the mysteries of speech.   New York :
	Anchor Books, 1994.

Katzner, Kenneth.  The languages of the world.  New York : Funk & Wagnalls, c1975.

Language change in South American Indian languages / edited by Mary Ritchie Key.
	Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.

Languages of the world : cataloging issues and problems.  Martin D. Joachim, ed.
	New York : Haworth Press, c1993.

Lehmann, Winfred P.  Historical linguistics, an introduction.New York : Holt,
	Rinehart and Winston, c1962.

Lockwood, W. B.  A panorama of Indo-European languages.  London : Hutchinson
	University Library, c1972.

Lord's prayer.  Polyglot.  The Lord's prayer in 250 languages and 180 forms
	of writing, assembled by Petro Marietti ; reproduced in facsimile
	together with explanatory notes on all the languages, the exotic scripts,
	the history of polyglot collections of the Lord's prayer, and 274 different
	border compositions printed in the book by Wendell J.S. Krieg.  Evanston,
	Ill. : Brain Books, 198-?

Nakanishi, Akira.  Writing systems of the world : alphabets, syllabaries, pictograms.
	Rutland, Vt. : Tuttle, c1980.

The origin and diversification of language.  Nina G. Jablonski and Leslie C. Aiello,
	eds.  San Francisco, Calif. : California Academy of Sciences, c1998.

Pei, Mario.  Talking your way around the world.  3rd ed.  New York : Harper & Row,
	1971.

Reading the past : ancient writing from cunieform to the alphabet.   Introduced by
	J.T. Hocker.  New York : Barnes & Noble, c1990.

Robinson, Andrew.  Lost languages : the enigma of the world's undeciphered scripts.
	New York : McGraw-Hill, 2002.

Ruhlen, Merritt.  The origin of language.  New York : Wiley, c1994.

Sampson, Geoffrey.  Writing systems : a linguistic introduction.   Stanford, Calif. :
  Stanford University Press, c1985.

Tseng, Sally C., comp.  LC romanization tables and cataloging policies.  Metuchen,
	N.J. :  Scarecrow Press, c1990.