I was working with an ESL section of ENG2100 this morning. Their assignment is to write about their native language, its history, grammar, alphabet and writing system. There are several encyclopedias and handbooks in our reference collection that are good resources for this assignment:
Facts about the World’s Languages at REF P371 .F33 2001
The World’s Major Languages at REF P371 .W6 1987
The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems at REF Z40 .C67 1996
The World’s Writing Systems at REF P211 .W714 1995
and the Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics (9 vols.) at REF P29 .E48 1994