# Linguistics - how/where to start

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 26, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360 "2003-03-26T19:37:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360/1 "2003-03-26T19:37:04Z")

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I went to a wonderful school with an excellent linguistics program. I completely failed to recognize or care about that at the time, and therefore never took advantage of it then. I regret that.

Now, I want to learn something about linguistics, at least the 1st half of linguistics 101 (that vague passing familiarity so that if someone starts using the terms, you can identify half of them) level.

So, could anyone recommend a book or a journal to read, or even a subject area to look around in?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360/2 "2003-03-26T20:55:18Z")

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[Fromkin & Rodman’s “Introduction to Language”](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/015508481X/qid=1048712128/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5337887-8558244?v=glance&s=books). You can probably find an older edition cheaper than this, and it’s the best _introductory_ linguistics text I know.

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**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360/3 "2003-03-26T22:07:26Z")

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Pretty much any introductory text book written in the last 15-20 years is going to provide you with the same basic overview of each of the various “sub-fields” of Linguistics. That should probably be enough if all you want is to be familiar with various terms. Are there particular areas that you are interested in?

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**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/linguistics-how-where-to-start/164360/4 "2003-03-26T23:27:26Z")

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I don’t know enough to know of any particular areas.

Thanks for the textbook link - I’ll try it.