Re: Inspirational languages

On Jan 14, 2007, at 6:30 PM, Leon Lin wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I currently can speak English and Mandarin, what other languages to
> recommend me look in to for ideas (not necessarily natlangs)? What
> languages
> have you found the most interesting?
>
> Thanks.
(popping my head in after a long lurk)

The book you want is _The Languages of Native North America_ by
Marianne Mithun.  It's part of the Cambridge Language Surveys
series.  The first part of the book focuses on the unusual
grammatical and phonological features present in Native American
languages; the second part gives brief historical and linguistic
descriptions of Native American language families and the languages
belonging thereto.  It's essentially a catalog of interesting things
to do in your conlang.  Plus, there's a hefty references section if
you find yourself interested in a particular language and want to
look at it in more detail.

It's a tremendous piece of scholarship.  I bought it for reference
but ended up reading it straight through like a novel.

Adam