The editors of this dictionary of languages begin by explaining that it is the latest volume of an encyclopedic project initiated in 1995 by Sylvain Auroux. Thus it is a dictionary not of short definitions like many of those already available in English, but of encyclopedic descriptions of languages. The descriptions are based on a standard format: an introductory section on the historical and cultural context, followed by sections on writing system, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicology, and concluding with a short bibliography. In this respect it is quite different from other standard dictionaries of language such as the Ethnologue (Dallas, 1951-) and David Crystal’s An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language & Languages (Oxford, 1992), which include only classificatory and geographical definitions without any grammatical description. Another key distinctive feature that this volume offers the reader are the largely French perspectives of the authors of the individual articles. Claude Hagège on Arabic and Marie-Lise Beffa on Mongolian will certainly interest specialists in those languages, to mention only two of the 151 contributors.

Perhaps as a consequence of its depth of detail, the editors have limited the scope of the dictionary. In the face of 6,909 languages in the world today (figure from the 16th edition of Ethnologue, viewed online 26 September 2012) and the disparity of status among them, the editors have chosen to include only those languages that have either the status of a national language or languages that are used by important groups of human communities for communication purposes, including liturgical languages otherwise long “dead.” The foreword states that nearly 200 languages and language families are described in the dictionary, while the introduction states that systematic descriptions are provided for about 130 languages. Thus, for example, in the section on Bantu languages, one finds entries only for Bafia, Swahili, Kikongo, and Tswana, while in the section on modern Germanic languages, one finds English, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Alsatian dialects, and Yiddish—but not Afrikaans, Frisian, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Pennsylvania Dutch. Of the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia, we find entries for Malay and Indonesian, the national languages, but not Javanese—spoken by 85 million people, according to the 2000 census of Indonesia—nor Balinese. Languages of Africa and the Americas are covered primarily by a handful of entries for individual languages and a few entries for larger groupings of language families.

The result is dissatisfying. As an encyclopedic dictionary, one would expect it to be of service precisely to those interested in finding out something about Frisian and Faroese (for example) who have no expectation of detailed grammatical descriptions. Instead, we find not only brief descriptions of details of the major languages, too short to be of any use to a working linguist, but also a lack of any discussion or description of the other 6,700 or more languages in the world. Of course, it is not the only dictionary of languages to offer such a frustrating set of constraints; there is no shortage of dictionaries of languages that offer much less than one would hope for. Andrew Dalby’s Dictionary of Languages (New York, 1998) boasts of more than 400 languages, but at only a little over 700 pages it simply offers half as much information for twice as many languages. Crystal’s dictionary (cited above) covers not only languages but the whole world of linguistic terminology in 428 pages. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, edited by Keith Brown (2d ed. Oxford, 2005), includes entries for only 400 languages in spite of being issued in 14 large volumes. Similar problems also plague such standardized monographs as are published in the Routledge Language Family Series. This dictionary unfortunately combines the brief boiler-plate descriptions of the Routledge series with the restricted scope of an encyclopedia for the layperson. The question that needs to be asked is, “Who are these linguists writing for?” If for the non-linguist, then the lack of detail is irrelevant, but the absence of most of the world’s languages is troubling; Ethnologue is more comprehensive and easier to use, both in print and online. On the other hand, if the dictionary is meant for linguists, not only are the omissions problematic, but the poverty of description and limited bibliographies are also inexplicable. Perhaps a different title describing this work as “an encyclopedia of national languages” would not have invited the above criticisms.

In short, this Dictionnaire des langues is neither better nor worse than any other dictionary of languages. In scope, in detailed description, and in bibliographical references, it barely scratches the surface of the world’s languages and research on them. With its illustrious contributors and French perspective, this book would be important for readers and library collections concerned with French or European contributions to linguistics. On the other hand, if all that is desired is a usable dictionary or encyclopedia of languages, then there is no need to acquire this volume when other dictionaries such as those mentioned earlier in this review are already available.

Elektronische Informationsressourcen für Germanisten [Electronic Resources for Germanists]. Klaus Gantert. Berlin [et al.]: de Gruyter Saur, 2010. 323 p. ill. 24 cm. (Bibliothekspraxis, 40). ISBN 978-3-598-21169-0: EUR 59.95 [11-2]