A comprehensive geographic compendium dedicated to librarians, Bright's book supplies linguistic and anthropological data on cities, towns, and geographic landmarks. An impressive list of helpful colleagues from across the U.S and Canada represents a scholarly background in 20 native languages. A meticulous pronunciation key offers detailed explanation of 46 arcane symbols and sounds suited to the needs of specialists.
Following a 13-page explanation of how and why Bright chose each entry, the text contains entries in a two-column spread with clear typefaces. Entries average three to six lines and generally include the name of the state and county in which each place is located, a pronunciation guide, an etymology, abbreviated citations to sources, occurrences of the name in other states, and cross-references to related names. A sprinkling of slightly longer entries includes those for Caribou, Horse, Lehigh, Manito, Oregon, and pecan. Back matter offers 14 pages of references ranging from Frederic Baraga's dictionary of the Ojibwa language, compiled in 1880, and Antonio Penafiel's Nomenclatura geografica de Mexico (1897) to a 1994 Aleut dictionary and Making Dictionaries: Preserving Indigenous Languages of the Americas (Univ. of California, 2002).
This work should find a place in academic libraries supporting Native American studies and American geography programs and in reference collections of large public libraries. Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
About the Author
William Bright was Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at UCLA and served as the editor of the journals Language, Language in Society, and Written Language and Literacy. He also edited the International Encyclopedia of Linguistics and The World?s Writing Systems
