{"id":510,"date":"2011-08-07T13:41:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T20:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=510"},"modified":"2011-08-07T13:49:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T20:49:14","slug":"some-recent-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/?p=510","title":{"rendered":"Some Recent Books&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, not <em>recent<\/em> in the sense of recently published but recent in the sense of &#8220;I just recently checked them out of my local library.&#8221; I thought I&#8217;d get them on the record with some links and brief reviews:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach<\/em> by Henry Rogers (2005)<!--book depository link --> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdepository.com\/Writing-Systems-Henry-Rogers\/9780631234647\/?a_aid=lcs\"><img src='\/images\/bookdepository.png' alt='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' title='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' \/><\/a> <!-- indie bound link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/0631234640?aff=lcs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/indiebound.png\" alt=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"  title=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"\/><\/a> <!-- worldcat link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/search?qt=affiliate&#038;ai=Library_conlanginglibrarian&#038;q=0631234640&#038;wcsbtn2w.x=30&#038;wcsbtn2w.y=17\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/worldcat.png\" alt=\"Find at a library near you\"  title=\"Find at a library near you\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Case<\/em> (2nd ed., Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) by Barry J. Blake (2001)<!--book depository link --> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdepository.com\/Case-Barry-Blake\/9780521014915\/?a_aid=lcs\"><img src='\/images\/bookdepository.png' alt='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' title='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' \/><\/a> <!-- indie bound link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/0521014913?aff=lcs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/indiebound.png\" alt=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"  title=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"\/><\/a> <!-- worldcat link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/search?qt=affiliate&#038;ai=Library_conlanginglibrarian&#038;q=0521014913&#038;wcsbtn2w.x=30&#038;wcsbtn2w.y=17\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/worldcat.png\" alt=\"Find at a library near you\"  title=\"Find at a library near you\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation<\/em> by Beth Levin (1993)<!--book depository link --> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bookdepository.com\/English-Verb-Classes-Alternations-Beth-Levin\/9780226475332\/?a_aid=lcs\"><img src='\/images\/bookdepository.png' alt='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' title='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' \/><\/a> <!-- indie bound link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/0226475336?aff=lcs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/indiebound.png\" alt=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"  title=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"\/><\/a> <!-- worldcat link --><a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/search?qt=affiliate&#038;ai=Library_conlanginglibrarian&#038;q=0226475336&#038;wcsbtn2w.x=30&#038;wcsbtn2w.y=17\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/worldcat.png\" alt=\"Find at a library near you\"  title=\"Find at a library near you\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The icons link to places you can either purchase the books <img src='\/images\/bookdepository.png' alt='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' title='Buy The Book Now at The Book Depository, Free Delivery World Wide' \/> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/indiebound.png\" alt=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"  title=\"Buy online from an indie bookstore\"\/> or look for them at your local library through WorldCat <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/worldcat.png\" alt=\"Find at a library near you\"  title=\"Find at a library near you\"\/>. These icons have also begun to be incorporated into the entries in <strong>The Conlanger&#8217;s Library<\/strong> as well.<\/p>\n<p><em>Writing Systems<\/em> (part of the Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics series) covers a wide range of ancient and modern scripts and should serve as a good source of inspiration for conlangers developing &#8220;native&#8221; writing systems for their conlangs. While not exhaustive in its coverage, it does provide enough detail on the scripts to give the aspiring con-scripter the ability either to work directly from the information from the book or to begin to dig deeper on the Internet or databases for additional in-depth details on a writing system of interest. Personally, I really liked Rogers&#8217; information in the sections on &#8220;Cuneiform&#8221;, &#8220;Semitic&#8221;, &#8220;Indian Abugida and Other Asian Writing&#8221;, and &#8220;Other Writing Systems&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Blake&#8217;s <em>Case<\/em> is typical of the Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics (e.g., cover, layout, etc.). The abundant interlinear translations provide excellent examples of each topic covered. Lots of good inspiration for going beyond the &#8220;usual&#8221; case systems. The &#8220;Language Index&#8221; references well over 150 languages used as illustrative examples, from Abaza to Zoque.<\/p>\n<p>Levin&#8217;s <em>English Verb Classes<\/em> has been recommended by none other than <a href=\"http:\/\/conference.conlang.org\/lcc4\/speakers\/djplcc4.pdf\">David J. Peterson<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/conference.conlang.org\/lcc4\/\">LCC4<\/a>. The book is a tour-de-force of (no surprise) English verb classes and their alternations. As David suggested, this is a great source for developing a con-vocabulary.<\/p>\n<p>None of these are cheap. If you can&#8217;t afford adding them to your personal conlanging bookshelf, they are well worth checking out at your local (public or academic) library. If they don&#8217;t have them on the shelf, don&#8217;t forget to request them through the interlibrary loan service. Most libraries will borrow items for you from outside the local area.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy! And happy conlanging!<\/p>\n<p><em>(P.S. I almost forgot to add that <a href=\"http:\/\/terjemar.net\/\">Sylvia Sotomayor<\/a> was instrumental in helping me get those icons incorporated into the Library. She did coding and was exceptionally patient in guiding me through the updates needed. lel\u00c4\u0081\u00c3\u00b1, Sylvia!)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, not recent in the sense of recently published but recent in the sense of &#8220;I just recently checked them out of my local library.&#8221; I thought I&#8217;d get them on the record with some links and brief reviews: Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach by Henry Rogers (2005) Case (2nd ed., Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,29,19,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-conlanging","category-library-additions","category-review-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.conlang.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}