The first part of this text for young students provides an introduction to the origins of language, the beginnings of writing, and the making of an alphabet. The second part, "Word Stories," presents the etymologies of over 100 common English words in simplified, nontechnical style. Special terms are explained in a prefatory section. A word and…

This survey of the world's written languages consists of a series of historical sketches of different languages, each including a table of signforms in their standard order and their variations, but focusing primarily on how the sounds of the language are represented in writing. A brief text in the language(s) the script is used for is also…

THIS TEXT IS DESIGNED AS A MANUAL FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON ALTAIC LINGUISTICS, AS WELL AS BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION OTHERWISE DIFFICULT TO OBTAIN IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. IN PART 1, THE AUTHOR CLASSIFIES THE ALTAIC LANGUAGES--MONGOLIAN, MANCHU-TUNGUS, CHUVASH-TURKIC, (WITH THE POSSIBLE INCLUSION OF KOREAN)--AND…

A discussion of the situation of Idoma, a Nigerian language, begins with different accounts of the language's origin, referring to both local legend and cosmology. It then proceeds to a review of modern linguists' efforts, since 1927, to classify the language. A statistical overview contains information on the number of speakers of Idoma as a…