Linguistics research in SIL focuses on the minority and endangered languages of the world and the application of that knowledge to benefit language communities, as well as local, national, and international educators, students, and researchers using a variety of theoretical approaches to language research.

The LinguaLinks Linguistics bookshelf is the "reference library" for the LinguaLinks Linguistics workshops. The LinguaLinks Linguistics workshops are designed to help field workers do language research. You'll find information and tools to help you collect, organize, analyze, and manage a rich corpus of linguistic data.

It is not necessary to be using the LinguaLinks Linguistics workshops in order to benefit from the bookshelf. Users of the bookshelf will find helpful insights for linguistics work in general.

The information in the LinguaLinks Linguistics bookshelf features:

• guidelines for working with language associates, with
  • sample questions for eliciting data
  • methods for organizing and preserving data
  • guidelines for analyzing data
  • helps for writing linguistic papers
  • tips for building a personal linguistic library
• an online linguistics glossary, with definition of important grammatical, semantic, and pragmatic terms, and a bibliography with hundreds of citations of important linguistic publications.
• an electronic version of selected issues of SIL's journal, Notes on Linguistics
• the Field guide to recording language data, by Charles E. Grimes. This guide provides practical advice and instructions for making good recordings of minority language oral history and literature.

In addition to these general works, there is a wealth of other advice, information, and training in some of the sub-disciplines of linguists:

• Helps on morphology, syntax, and interlinearizing texts
• Helps on lexical semantics and building a lexical database
• Helps on phonology

The LinguaLinks Linguistics bookshelf also includes a collection of DOS, Windows , and Macintosh software and utilities, located on the LinguaLinks CD-ROM. These include:

• Truetype fonts for the International Phonetic Alphabet,
• SIL's famous "Shoebox" program, and
• much more.

 

The LinguaLinks Linguistics Library includes a multimedia tutor for learning the International Phonetic Alphabet.