Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics

Rating:
Summary: Every edition is worse than the last
Review: This ninth edition of Language Files is a mess. The biggest blunder in this edition is a switch in transcription systems to something the authors think of as IPA. I have nothing against IPA and prefer to use it myself in class, but use of IPA should be accurate and consistent. The switch to this pseudo-IPA is awful and wildly inconsistent. Many of the changes seem to have been made by a bad use of a word processor's search-and-replace function. Others seem to be deliberate and in error. I've been using LF since the first edition. Every edition corrects a few mistakes and adds a few others. So many mistakes have been added in this edition (though there were plenty in the 8th edition, too) the book has become less than useless. If OSU wants to retain its credibility, it should stop production of this edition, recall it, and seriously pay attention to its errors. There should be a few linguists at OSU that can figure out how to improve it. I will not be using it again. Explaining and apologizing for its errors has taken too much of my class time.