Asian Languages
Featured Books
Currently, the featured books section highlights some of the library's best handbooks & guides for to the languages from and spoken in the Americas. These books typically offer the reader an opportunity to survey and learn about a broad field of scholarship in a comprehensive way. They give a snap shop of the discipline covered at the time the book is published. Unlike a retrospective collection of articles, these guides are written or edited as a planned and intentional effort, with chapters and sections interrelating and complimenting one another and thereby tend to be more readable and integrated research works.
Arabic Language and Linguistics by Call Number: PJ6074.A76 2012Arabic, one of the official languages of the United Nations, is spoken by more than half a billion people around the world and is of increasing importance in today's political and economic spheres. The study of the Arabic language has a long and rich history: earliest grammatical accounts date from the 8th century and include full syntactic, morphological, and phonological analyses of the vernaculars and of Classical Arabic. In recent years the academic study of Arabic has become increasingly sophisticated and broad. This state-of-the-art volume presents the most recent research in Arabic linguistics from a theoretical point of view, including computational linguistics, syntax, semantics, and historical linguistics. It also covers sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and discourse analysis by looking at issues such as gender, urbanization, and language ideology. Underlying themes include the changing and evolving attitudes of speakers of Arabic and theoretical approaches to linguistic variation in the Middle East.
Chinese: a Comprehensive Grammar by Call Number: New Books PL1107.Y56 2016Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar is a complete reference guide to Chinese grammar which presents a fresh and accessible description of the language, concentrating on the real patterns of use in modern Chinese. The volume is organized to promote a thorough understanding of Chinese grammar. It offers a stimulating analysis of the complexities of the language and provides full and clear explanations. Throughout, the emphasis is on Chinese as used by present-day native speakers. An extensive index and numbered paragraphs provide readers with easy access to the information they require.
Essential Japanese Grammar: A Comprehensive Guide to Contemporary Usage by Call Number: Ref. PL685.T365 2012Essential Japanese Grammar is an indispensable study guide for students of the Japanese language at all levels.
Good Starting Databases for Asian Languages and Linguistics
The following databases are good places to go to start researching your topic. Each database has a slightly different focus, so you might need to try out a couple of databases before finding one that returns the sort of results you are looking for.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowAn archive of important scholarly journals, eBooks and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Offers high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as originally published.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, and the dramatic arts.
Good Starting Journals for Asian Languages and Linguistics
The following are links to specific academic journals which are published and peer-reviewed by experts in the field. If you want to narrow your search to a specific topic, country, or issue, finding a journal that publishes in that area can help
- Journal of East Asian LinguisticsEspecially with the amount of most recent theoretical work on these languages, the field of theoretical East Asian linguistics has been fast growing. The purpose of the Journal of East Asian Linguistics is to provide a common forum for such scholarly activities, and to foster further growth that will allow the field to benefit more from linguistic theory of today, and enable the languages to play a more important role in shaping linguistic theory of tomorrow.
- Acta Linguistica AsiaticaALA is an interdisciplinary scholarly journal which accepts research papers, survey papers and technical notes on the subjects of Asian linguistics, translation studies and the teaching of Asian languages, book reviews on representative works on the same subjects and reports from outstanding events. ALA's articles are mostly written in English, Slovene articles with English abstracts are also accepted.
- Studies in Philippine Languages and Cultures (SIL)Downloads are available for published SIL materials in more than 80 Philippine languages. Along with the print, works-in-progress, and online publications found elsewhere on this web site, we offer here data-rich resources on indigenous languages of the Philippines, some of which have little or no other documentation. Languages are named using the Ethnologue naming protocol and ISO 639-3 codes.
- Lingua CulturaThe journal contents are managed by the English Department, Japanese Department, and Chinese Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia.The objective of the journal is to provide a forum for lecturers, researchers, students, and practitioners to present their ideas, concepts, and new theories in language and culture; and to disseminate theory, research, and teaching reviews to the academic community of language and literature studies in Indonesia and abroad.