Writing Systems: A Linguistic Approach (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics Book 4)

received items as described. good price of book.

A comprehensive look at an surprising number of writing systems, their history, and how they evolve to serve different languages. I love the sheer number of systems included.The book discusses everything in depth, but it’s still pretty accessible for people new to linguistics or casual readers.An enjoyable, insightful, and thorough read.

Practically everything you ever wanted to know about writing systems from a linguistic perspective is in this book. Pick a language; it's in there. I originally purchased this book for its coverage of Chinese script, but you'll get everything from Linear B to Cherokee.

Easy to read

This book is structured like a course: at the end of every chapter there are review exercises. The material is quite ample, pretty much going over every writing system in the world, current or otherwise. As the book itself is not overtly long, some systems are only gone over lightly. With this in mind, it is quite ample for amateur learners yet stimulating enough for more advanced learners to then further their studies with other tomes, dedicated to the writing systems they are more interested in. In my opinion, it was worth it alone for the initial chapter on the asian systems. Sumerian and Latin, I think I've seen more complete chapters elsewhere, but as a whole it is a fine, complete, book, which will spur the reader on to more concrete and specific compendiums.