The 400s: Language

Here is a list I've compiled of interesting-looking books in the 400s. I've been looking in particular for books in the foreign language categories that are about the languages rather than in those languages. Some of these have already been listed in other threads in this group.

400 Language: The Language Instinct
401 Philosophy and theory: The Unfolding of Language
409 Geographical persons and treatment: Empires of the Word

411 Writing systems: Alpha Beta
413 Dictionaries: Chasing the Sun
415 Structural systems: Words and Rules
417 Dialectology & historical linguistics: The Power of Babel

420 English & Old English: Mother Tongue
422 English etymology: Much Ado About English
423 English dictionaries: The Professor and the Madman
427 English language variations: Swearing
428 Standard English usage: Eats, Shoots and Leaves
429 Old English: Word-Hoard

422 French etymology: Le Franglais

439 Other Germanic languages: lots of books about Yiddish in this category

459 Romanian & Rhaeto-Romanic: The Origins of the Rumanians

471 Classical Latin writing & phonology: ABC et cetera
477 Old, Postclassical, Vulgar Latin: Latin, or the Empire of a Sign

480 Hellenic Languages; Classical Greek: Who Killed Homer?
481 Classical Greek writing & phonology: Alpha to Omega
482 Classical Greek etymology: Nomos and the Beginnings of Athenian Democracy
488 Classical Greek usage: A World of Heroes

491 East Indo-European & Celtic languages: Compulsory Irish
492 Afro-Asiatic languages; Semitic: Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the lost languages of Babylon
493 Non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages: The Keys of Egypt
497 North American native languages: Forked Tongues
499 Miscellaneous languages: The Artificial Language Movement

My husband and I both loved The Unfolding of Language.

An interesting list of books.

I would like to add two books in unlisted call numbers:

410 Archaeology and language: the puzzle of Indo-European origins, by Colin Renfrew. The origins of Indo-Euopeans is not entirely settled, although this is written at least 15 years ago.

448 Signposts : French by Edith Baer. A cute and visual method of learning French. I think they may be available in German and Spanish.

A few suggestions to add...

410 How language works: how babies babble, words change meaning, and languages live or die-I was able to find this one at my public library.
411 Letter Perfect
428 Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies

Another good 410 is The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, which is frequently hilarious if you know a bit about linguistics. Especially if you find the MIT/Chomsky dogma irksome.

Another one in 422: Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries: English Words That Come From Spanish. This is in William Safire's "bibliogifts" column in last Sunday's NYT, so it seems like it might be readable and not just a dictionary-style listing.

Another one for 400 is Far from the Madding Gerund and other dispatches from Language Log (even though everyone probably wants to read The Language Instinct anyway).

I think Far from the Madding Gerund looks like a more interesting read than The Language Instinct, but I do feel like I should read The Language Instinct anyway.

For 440 there's The Story of French.

Well, if you're interested in Far from the Madding Gerund, there's always Language Log to check out first . . . And The Language Instinct is really a non-scary read, so if you feel you "ought" to read it, go ahead and do so!

Thanks for that link!

Maybe I'll just read both of those books. Now, if only I had a bit of free time....

Nice - somehow this thread escaped me, but these are great recommendations for an area I am lacking in for my DDC.

I think I've found one difference between this thread and the other: this includes books that sound okay, while the other focuses on books people have actually read?

Exactly.

428 Standard English usage: Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss is a fun one too.

Oh, I loved this table! Fantastic idea to fill in the 400 class of Dewey classification!

I juat went to Half-Price Books and found several books for the 400s:

411-Writing Systems: Alpha Beta
417--Dialectology & historical linguistics: Bastard Tongues
497--North American Native Languages: Sacred Language: The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota

And I also recently got:

440--Romance Languages; French: Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul

16> Oh, I really enjoyed Bastard Tongues!

Here are some that I liked:

420 The Story of English, McCrum
420.9 The Mother Tongue, Bryson
423 The Disheveled Dictionary, Gordon
428 The Deluxe Transitive Vampire, Gordon

The Disheveled Dictionary is particularly entertaining.

>17 lorax:: Good to know! It looks good. Sacred Languages looks pretty dense, but I thought I was lucky to find one for that category. (I stood in the aisle for a long time trying to check my list online and compare it against the Dewey numbers listed in the books!)