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Linguistics & Languages in the SOAS Library

From the foundation of the school in 1916, the study of languages and literatures of Asia and Africa has occupied a central role in the research and teaching carried on at SOAS.

SOAS also has the oldest Linguistics Department of any British University, and an incomparable range of languages are studied and taught in the School.

The Library has a huge range of resources in linguistics including materials on the following:

  • Theoretical linguistics
  • Applied linguistics
  • Linguistic studies of the entire range of Oriental and African languages, living and dead, and some others, including Native American languages.
  • Theory of translation
  • Theory of language teaching

Please note that the immense wealth of material in Grammars and dictionaries of Oriental and African languages greatly outweighs the amount of material on the web for these languages.

The Endangered Languages Documentation Programme is housed at SOAS:the outcomes of all projects [including copies of recordings and videos] will be ultimately deposited within the ELDP Central Archive which is to be housed at SOAS. The outcomes should also be placed on a website.

Selection of key journals in linguistics

  • Australian journal of linguistics
  • International journal of American linguistics
  • Journal of East Asian linguistics
  • Journal of linguistics
  • Journal of phonetics
  • Journal of semantics
  • Journal of Semitic studies
  • Linguistic inquiry
  • Linguistic review
  • Phonology
  • Natural language and linguistic theory
  • South African journal of African languages
  • Studies in the linguistic sciences

Key reference material in linguistics

  • Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language /edited by Peter V. Lamarque ; consulting editor: R.E. Asher Ref.A401.03/746767
  • Dictionary of languages: the definitive reference to more than 400 languages /Andrew Dalby. Ref.A403/795208
  • The encyclopedia of language and linguistics; editor-in-chief R.E. Asher. L.Ref.A403/691456
  • International encyclopedia of linguistics; editor in chief William Bright. LRef.A403/624865
  • The global language register :a transnational key to the world's languages and peoples /David Dalby L.A409/743331
  • Linguistic bibliography for the year...; edited by Mark Janse and Sijmen Tol. Ref.A016.41/59104
  • The linguistics encyclopedia edited by Kirsten Malmkjaer. Ref.A410.3/841567

Special Collections

  • American Indian languages
  • Basque
  • Minor Finno-Ugrian languages (excluding Finnish and Hungarian)

Relevant Departments & Centres in the School