LLBA Database
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts This link opens in a new windowThe main linguistics database for finding journal articles. Beware: Articles written in foreign languages have their titles translated into English. The original title is included on the full record. You can limit to English only (or to the languages you know) on the Advanced Search page.
Another Linguistics Database for Finding Journal Articles
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowCovers journal articles in the fields of literature, linguistics and folklore. Also includes references to individual book chapters, which is an important way of publishing in this field. If you type the name of a language in MLA, you'll get results about the language and its literature/folklore, whereas LLBA is more focused on the language itself.
Linguistics Encyclopedias & Reference Works
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Oxford)
Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Elsevier)
Both encyclopedias are good for looking up linguistics concepts as well as reference information on languages and language families.
Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics
Also good for foundational articles when your topic is applied (e.g. second language learning, interpreting, speech therapy...).
Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Sound Change Reference Atlas Stand
E-book version of the Atlas
Focuses on phonological differences in North American speech
Historical & Regional Dictionaries
- Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
- Dictionary of Old English: A to I This link opens in a new windowFor English historical linguistics. Look up the etymology of English words.
- Dictionary of American Regional English Reference (Wilson 4) PE2843 .D52 1985
Citation Databases
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowUseful for citation searching. Once you find one relevant article, these databases help you find newer articles that cited the original article.
Journal Databases from Related Fields
- Anthropology Plus This link opens in a new window
- APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
- Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
- ERIC (via ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowEducation database that includes some applied linguistics and TESOL.
- PubMed This link opens in a new windowMedical database that covers speech disorders and some neurolinguistics.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Search Tips
Watch out for variant spellings and alternate names, especially in the names of languages.
Example: The Ewe language is also known as Ebwe, Efe, Ehwe, Eibe, Eue, Eve, Gbe, Krepe, Krepi, Popo, or Vhe. I found this alternate name list in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, a good source for such lists.
Use a * to cut off a word at its stem, e.g. diglossi* retrieves diglossia and diglossic.
Some search systems, including ProQuest (used in LLBA) and the ZSR homepage, will return matches to all the words you entered, regardless of word order or words in between. In EBSCOhost (used in MLA), you need to type the word AND (or use the second row) if you want to enter more than one word that is not an exact phrase.
If you can't use a star to search for spelling variants, use OR: swiss OR switzerland
Putting it all together: diglossi* AND (switzerland OR swiss)
Too many irrelevant results? Try limiting by date, language of article, or to peer reviewed (scholarly) articles
