Looking for the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics? No need to come to the library – this book is now available online.*

The Encyclopedia encompasses the full range of topics in linguistics, including such areas as historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, philosophical, and sociolinguistics.

To use the book, you can either Browse by scanning through a list of the entries in alphabetical order or Search for entries. In the left hand column, there is a list of related entries called See also, which is a list of entries related to the one you are currently looking at. Below this, you’ll see a list of Adjacent entries which can be used to browse through nearby entries (alphabetically) just as you might do with the print edition.

Another great feature of this collection is the “Cross Reference” tool. Highlight a word or phrase and then click the blue “Cross Reference” button to search across the entire encyclopedia for that word or words.

Illustrated material includes colour images of brain functioning, tree diagrams of both linguistic structure and language families, and diagrams of theoretical models.

One of the lovely things about online resources is the ability to link to related works. In this ebook, the bibliography at the end of each entry provides a link to the UBC Library catalogue for each citation. Simply click the “Find’ icon to search the catalogue for the book.

Enjoy! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this resource.

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* If you’d prefer the print book version of the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, we have the four-volume set in the Reference section of Koerner Library (on the second floor), at call number P29 .I58 2003.

For finding information on a specific language or languages in a specific region of the world, the Linguist List Languages database is an excellent starting point. The database allows you to search for a language information in a number of different ways: by language; by language family name; by Ethnologue code; and geographically, using an interactive world map.

Once you’ve found the language you’re interested, the results show basic information about the langage (Alternate and Dialect Names; Countries Spoken in; Status as a living or extinct language; Language Family), plus links to language-specific information on other linguistics sites such as Ethnologue, ODIN Database (Online Database of Interlinear Text), and the Rosetta Project, as well as all the resources related to the language in the LINGUIST-list database, like this:

Another one of the neat features of the database is that it also keeps track of languages which have become extinct or are in imminent danger of becoming extinct and provides a handy browse list of names, with links to the database for more information on each language.

UBC Library is currently trialling two new databases from CSA, COS Funding Opportunities and Community of Scholars.

COS Funding Opportunities is a compiled database of available opportunities for grants, fellowships, prizes and other type of funding for any discipline, worldwide. Opportunities come from the public and private sector, including governments, foundations and societies, and corporations. Each record is researched, verified, and indexed to ensure accuracy, timeliness and quality of data. Each record includes information on deadlines, amount of award, any eligibility criteria, and contact information for more information from the sponsoring organization.

Community of Scholars provides authoritative information about more than 1 million scholars and organizations around the world, including verified affiliation and publication information. This database is a unique tool for finding researchers by specific area of study. Linguists, check your entries – if you want to make changes or additions, there’s a handy form in the database that allows you to do so.

The trials are until November 30; please send any feedback to Doug Brigham, eResources Librarian.

Need to get reacquainted with the library after years of being away? Come to the “Back to Basics: Library Skills for Returning Students” session on Thursday Nov 16 from 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm in Koerner Library.

You’ll learn the basics of doing library research in an electronic world from finding books in the library catalogue to searching and accessing articles online. There will be lots of opportunities for hands-on practice and questions. This session will be most helpful for returning students in the Humanities and Social Sciences, but all are welcome.

Interested? Sign up here! (And check out the Library Instruction calendar for more offerings throughout the year.)

Check out this interactive language map of Canada, produced by the CBC. Click on a province to display the top 5 languages spoken at home for each province and territory of Canada, according to the 2001 census. BC’s top five? English (3,521,730); Chinese languages (208,080); Punjabi (125,920); French (53,615); and Tagalog, or Filipino (37,830).

Nunavut’s numbers give an interesting snapshot of the area:
- Inuktitut speakers outnumber English speakers, and,
- Chinese language speakers and Tagalog (Filipino) speakers are tied for 4th place with 20 speakers each.

If you’re looking for more detailed information on the languages of Canada, you can try Stats Canada Census 2001 Topic Based Tabulations and look for #6 in the list, Language Composition of Canada. Tables include:

These tables provide a comprehensive breakdown of languages by a wide range of variables such as age, gender, education, and income. If you use the 20/20 software that StatsCan provides, you can pull out the data for just the variables you are interested in (rather than looking at all the provinces or all languages, for example).

Statistical data can be challenging, so if you’re having trouble pulling out the numbers you need, please come down to the Koerner Library reference desk (2nd floor) and chat with a librarian. (Or contact me directly; details at the top left.)

I’ve had a few questions from students in LING 311 (Studies in phonology) looking for books and articles. I’m posting some tips for those of you who are still looking for resources on the phonology of your language.

To find books, try a search in the library catalogue. A keyword search for “phonology and (yourlanguage)” will usually turn up some results. When you look at the catalogue record for a book that looks good, notice the hyperlinked subject headings:

You can click on those subject headings to find more on that same topic. You’ll notice in the screen shot above, one of the subject headings is Spanish language–Phonology. You can also use that same format to do a Subject Heading search in the catalogue. (Remember to replace “Spanish” with whatever language you are interested in! And don’t forget to select “subject Heading” as your search type – the default is keyword.)

To find articles on phonology, the best place to search for journal articles is the Linguistics and Lanugage Behavior Abstracts database, which indexes all the main phonology and linguistics journals. Try a search for your topic and then click on the UBC eLink icon to find a copy of the article (if UBC Library subscribes to that journal, of course!)