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This article is from the sci.lang FAQ, by Michael Covington (mcovingt@ai.uga.edu) and Mark Rosenfelder (markrose@zompist.com) with numerous contributions by others.

4. What are some good books about linguistics?

(These are cited by title and author only. Full ordering information
can be obtained from BOOKS IN PRINT, available at most bookstores and
at even the smallest public libraries.)

CAMBRIDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LANGUAGE, by David Crystal (1987) is a good place
to start if you are new to this field.
LANGUAGE, by Edward Sapir (1921), is a readable survey of linguistics
that is still worthwhile despite its age.
Some good surveys of linguistics:
An Introduction to Language - Fromkin and Rodman (1974)
The Social Art - Ronald Macaulay (1995)
The Language Web - Jean Aitchison
Language: The Basics - R.L. Trask (1996)
AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE, by Fromkin and Rodman (1974), is one of the
best intro linguistics survey texts. There are many others.
THE WORLD'S MAJOR LANGUAGES, edited by Bernard Comrie (1987) contains
meaty descriptions of fifty languages.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD by Anatole Lyovin (1997)
surveys everything and has good sketches of some languages Comrie skips.
CAMBRIDGE TEXTBOOKS IN LINGUISTICS (a series) consists of good,
modestly priced introductions to all the areas of linguistics.
Any encyclopedia will give you basic information about widely studied
languages, alphabets, etc.

 

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• prev: 3. Does linguistics tell people how to speak or write properly?
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• next: 5. How did language originate?

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languages, scientific or historical study, human languages