Re: Good reads for the novice conlanger?

bnathyuw writes:
 >  --- J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...> wrote:
 >
 > >     - _The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language_ 2nd
 > > edition, by David Crystal
 >
 > i agree. also worthwhile is _concise compendium of the
 > world's lagnagues_ by campbell ( it's gets really bad
 > reviews on amazon, and is rather inaccurate, but makes
 > a good gazetteer (sp?) )
 >

I like Campbell too.  I keep finding things to quote from it.
There're some interesting languages in there - particularly
Mapudungu*.  I can't comment on the accuracy, though.  It's the
concise version of the two-volume _Compendium of the World's
Languages_, which has ~3 times as many languages, although some of the
entries are smaller.  I'm not sure if the original is still in print
(I can't find it at amazon) and it'd be too expensive anyway, but it
might be worth looking for if you have access to a large reference
library.

Actually, just looking online, the 2nd edition of the complete
version's just come out, but it's £250.

http://www.languages.routledge.com/languages/compendium.html



* There doesn't seem to be any more detailed description of that
language in English anywhere, with the possible exception of a
doctoral dissertation (Smeets, Leiden, 1989).  I don't know if that's
in English or not.  Everything else I can find a reference to appears
to be in Spanish.  So that's one reason to get the book, unless you
speak Spanish well enough to understand that material, and can get
hold of it.