Time to test the "LJ Genie" theory posed by 
madbard - namely, if you ask a question, any question, on your LJ, someone will pop up and provide an accurate answer. It may even be someone you've never heard of, but nonetheless they will appear.
So here goes:
One of my mom's university students emailed me (because I studied linguistics) to ask for some good sources on the history of languages in Palestine. Given that "Palestine" is a rather ambiguously defined land mass, especially over the course of history, and that I've never studied its languages in particular anyway, I don't really have any good suggestions. I plan to tell her to go to the university library and look up books with keywords like "historical linguistics," "sociolinguistics," "Semitic languages," and the names of individual languages spoken there through the ages (Aramaic, Syriac, etc.). But if anyone knows of any particular writers or books or articles that would provide a good background on the subject, do tell!
Thank you.
madbard - namely, if you ask a question, any question, on your LJ, someone will pop up and provide an accurate answer. It may even be someone you've never heard of, but nonetheless they will appear.So here goes:
One of my mom's university students emailed me (because I studied linguistics) to ask for some good sources on the history of languages in Palestine. Given that "Palestine" is a rather ambiguously defined land mass, especially over the course of history, and that I've never studied its languages in particular anyway, I don't really have any good suggestions. I plan to tell her to go to the university library and look up books with keywords like "historical linguistics," "sociolinguistics," "Semitic languages," and the names of individual languages spoken there through the ages (Aramaic, Syriac, etc.). But if anyone knows of any particular writers or books or articles that would provide a good background on the subject, do tell!
Thank you.
Comments
This is another web source I had bookmarked.
Some books that mention the subject of Semitic langauges that I am personally familar with include:
J. H. Greenberg, The Languages of Africa (2d ed. 1966)
S. Moscati, ed., An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (1964)
Testen, David., Parallels in Semitic linguistics : the development of Arabic and related Semitic particles (1998)
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Palestinian+West+Bank+and+Gaza
Seems to me that if you don't want to teach linguistics in college, there are two main industry things that linguists can do: teach English as a second language, or work as a computational linguist.
As for me, I'm not sure I want to be a teacher. And I don't have the programming skills to be a computational linguist. But I loved the subject anyway, and really, earning a Master's was about the best way to kill time in Davis, CA.
However, I've lately wondered what it takes to become a dialect coach, since that would be quite cool...
Talk to advisors, and plan early and often! :)
Thanks for the advice!