Finding a Grammar

So you need to find a grammar or phonological description for a class project? Where should you look? How can you judge the credibility of a source?

Where to look

Your library

• Browse the physical books in your library. If your library uses Library of Congress Call Numbers (as the TTU library does), you'll find many grammars shelved in the sections PA through PM. (At TTU, these are mostly in the 3rd floor stacks—go browse at your leisure.)
• Search your library's catalogue. (See the tips below on forming a search query.)
• Databases from your library, most notably Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). TTU students can access LLBA at this link. LLBA provides descriptions of thousands and thousands of linguistics articles, books, dissertations, and other sources. Just search for the name of the language you're looking for.

This site

• Grammars library. These are categorized by language family and geographic region. Many have links to open-access downloads of the sources. (For my students: I can share with you my copy of most of these that are not open-access.)
• List of grammars series. This page lists series of grammars from major publishers. For example, the Routledge Comprehensive Grammars series has about 30 titles to choose, and all sorts of languages. These series are generally reputable and of good quality.

Publicly accessible databases

One of my first stops when looking for grammars in any language is Glottolog. Glottolog catalogs a wealth of information about languages, dialects, and language families. But most relevant for searching for a grammar, each language has a "references" section containing citations about the language (scroll to the bottom of the page for your language). The "doctype" column tells you what type of document each source is: full grammar, grammar sketch, phonological description, etc.

Glottolog also links to pages for each language at various other databases (under the "Links" heading). These include the following, and are worth investigating to find grammars even if you don't use Glottolog. (Most of these allow you to search using the language's three-letter ISO 639-3 or the eight-character glottocode, which are provided on Glottolog in a blue-green box at the top right.)

• World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). "...[A] large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars)." Each WALS language entry has a table with various features about the language, but the real gold mine when searching for grammars is the "Sources" box near the bottom right, which will point you to even more grammars.
• Open Language Archives Community (OLAC). Don't be overwhelmed by the sheer number of sources linked on each language's page under "primary texts" and "lexical resources": head for the "language description" section first, then "other resources about the language." You'll have to do a bit of sifting to find which sources are actually grammars.
• Phoible. Phoible aims to give data about the phonological inventories of each language. It also provides a list of sources upon which those data were based—many of which are grammars.

There are also a number of databases not linked directly from Glottolog. You can find a more complete catalog at the list of linguistics databases page. Among these, though, the following are particularly useful for finding grammars:

• Ethnologue. Ethnologue also provides metadata about languages. Some features require a subscription, so check if your university has one.
• South American Phonological Inventory Database (SAPhon). Provides phonological inventories for South American languages, along with listings of the sources from which the data was obtained.
• Web Resources for African Languages. You have to navigate by language family, but within each family page, a number of sources are listed for each language—many of these won't be grammars, but it's worth taking a look.
• UPSID web interface. For each language, Upside provides a list of sounds in the language, along with the sources used to make these lists. Scour these for other grammars. (NB: UPSID uses a fairly esoteric transcription system, so don't expect IPA!)

Other sites

I don't maintain these lists, so can't vouch for the quality of every source, but most have proven to at least be worth taking a look.

• GrammarWatch is a list of open-access grammars maintained by the Association for Linguistic Typology.
• SIL language and Culture Archives. "[P]reserves and disseminates one of the broadest collections of materials developed for and by minority language communities worldwide." Includes many grammars and phonological descriptions, most of which are available to download for free.
• Pacific Linguistics Publications Archive. Grammars and phonological descriptions of Pacific languages. Set "content type" to "gram", "phon", etc. to narrow down the search and exclude other types of resources.

Forming a search query

If you are searching for a grammar for a specific language, there are a few ways to make your searches more successful. Many grammars have a title of the form "grammar of X", "the X language", or "X grammar" (phonological descriptions often have titles like "phonology of X", or "X phonology"). Search for these variations (with the quotes, substituting your language for X), and make sure the search is querying the title field.

These tips will work on databases (like LLBA), but also on general search engines and Google Scholar.

Evaluating sources

Grammars in general

A good grammar will usually...

• Be written by a linguist (try Googling the author's name plus "linguistics").
• Be a description of the language, not prescriptions for how to best speak/write the language.
• Have sections/chapters on at least phonology, morphology, and syntax.
• Have lots of data. The more data that backs up each generalization, the better.
• Often have one of the following phrases in the title: "descriptive grammar", "a grammar of X", "reference grammar", "the X language".

Signs a book is probably not a good fit:

• It is a language instruction book (e.g. "Teach yourself Japanese in 30 days").
• Has a title like "A Grammar of [anything that's not a language name]".
• It focuses mostly on anthropologivcal issues, at the expense of linguistics issues.
• Strong focus on theoretical issues, at the expense of linguistic description.

Phonological descriptions

If you are aiming to write a phonological description, or need to include substantive commentary on the language's phonology, you can check general grammars or look for books specifically on the language's phonology.

In both cases, look for the following properties:

• Has lots of phonological data.
• Doesn't focus on the writing system/spelling at the expense of the actual sounds.
• Bonus if it has a section on morphophonology, phonological alternations, or phonological processes.

If you're looking at general grammars, try to find one(s) with a phonology section not less than 10 pages long.

If you're looking for phonological descriptions specifically, look for titles like "phonology of X" or "X phonology".