Re: Basque & Katzner's Languages of the World

--- Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
>I picked up _Languages of the World_ by Kenneth Katzner a few weeks ago.
>It's an interesting, *very* breezy survey of world languages, probably
>not really useful linguistically (the author works for the U.S. federal gov't)
--- end of quote ---

I would go so far as to say linguistically useless--though not entirely
impractical, since studying the textual examples can help you identify
different languages from written texts (a sort of language equivalent to a
bird-watcher's field guide).

Despite its breeziness and many inaccuracies, though, I have a definite sentimental
attachment to that book, since it was one of my earliest exposures to
cross-linguistic diversity. Finding that book in my high school library played
a pivotal role in my becoming a linguist--that and Mario Pei's "The Story of
Language", another seriously flawed work. Both books have places of honour on
my bookshelf.

Matt.

Matthew Pearson
Department of Linguistics
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland, OR 97202
503 771 1112 x 7618

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