The World's Writing Systems

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 968 pages
• Published by: Oxford University Press, USA February 8, 1996
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0195079930
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195079937
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.9 x 2.1 inches
• Weighs: 3.5 pounds

From Library Journal
Nearly eighty international scholars, the editors among them, have contributed entries in The World's Writing Systems covering all scripts officially used throughout the world as well as their historical origins, each with an extensive bibliography. Included are tables of alphabets and syllabaries as well as script samples, usually featuring transliteration, transcription, and gloss of the text. The essays are grouped by topics, but a detailed index guides the user to specific terms or languages desired. There is even a section with entries treating notation systems used for music and movement. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems is arranged in dictionary format without an index, but with a substantial bibliography. Coulmas's (Writing Systems of the World, Blackwell, 1989) coverage is not nearly as comprehensive as the Oxford publication. In the article on the Cree Syllabary all scripts are mentioned, but tables are not provided for Inuktitut (Inuit language) or Chipewyan. "Gothic" script is discussed with only incidental reference to the term Fraktur, for which an interesting history is provided in the Oxford work. This, however, does not mean that the Coulmas encyclopedia is not a useful reference tool. Both publications are recommended for most reference collections, but The World's Writing Systems is clearly the more technically detailed. The determining factors for purchase will be price and requirements of library clientele. There is a third choice for public or school libraries with limited resources: Akira Nakanishi's Writing Systems of the World (Tuttle, 1980). This inexpensive (pap. $14.95) ready-reference tool concentrates on modern languages and their scripts, with examples from newspapers, a color map of world writing systems, an index, and a bibliography.?Edward K. Werner, St. Lucie Cty. Lib. Sys., Ft. Pierce, Fla.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Review

"Without question the most comprehensive work ever published on this subject."--Times Literary Supplement
"Recommended for most reference collections."--Library Journal
"Divided into thirteen parts from grammatology to printing, it provides succinct and accurate descriptions of all the languages of the biblical world in addition to all others.an very informative collectionit will be of great value to those working in Near Eastern and biblical fields and will remain an indispensable tool for scholars and students for many years to come."--Religious Studies Review
"A wonderful book.A valuable contribution to the study of writing and one which will be of great practical use."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"A remarkable reference.This volume is the only comprehensive resource covering every major writing system and the way scripts relate to the languages they represent. It is a resource that belongs in every library's reference section and in the personal library of anyonw with a deep-seated interest in language."--Cryptologia
"Ranging from cuneiform to shorthand, from archaic Greek to modern Chinese, from old Persian to Cherokee, this is the only available work in English to cover all of the world's writing systems from ancient times to the present."--Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society
"It is difficult to imagine that anything more comprehensive will ever supersede this work."--Andrews University Seminary Studies


Reader Reviews
This book belongs to a rare category: Reference Works of Art. This massive volume not only brings together an amazing mass of information, but does so in a fantastically attractive manner. The coverage is comprehensive: general articles on the relationship of writing to language, linguistics, decipherment, etc. accompany page after page devoted to every script extant from Egyptian and Chinese scripts to Ogham, Cree, and Mandain. If that were not enough, the book goes on to explore other systems for conveying information in written, symbolic form, such as mathematical and musical notations. But enough with the table of contents. I've only used the book for browsing thus far, but this even is a rewarding experience. The price on this book is quite high, but is in proportion to the quantity and quality of the material it contains. If all books were so well done, there would be very little to debate in terms of the effort put forth by writers and the taste exercised by editors. It doesn't get any better than this.