![]() The first problem with the claim that spiral staircases in medieval castles were deliberately designed to give right-handed defenders an advantage is that there are no extant medieval primary sources that expressly say this. A far more parsimonious explanation is that the majority of staircases were designed clockwise simply so that a right-handed person could keep their right hand on the wall for balance while descending the staircase under everyday circumstances. Unfortunately, for reasons I am about to explain, it is also almost certainly wrong there is no compelling evidence to suggest that medieval staircases were intentionally designed this way for this reason and there is a great deal of evidence to suggest the opposite. It is also one of those “fun facts” that are often repeated on the internet. This is something that tour guides often tell people visiting castles. "The merits of the Linguistic Bibliography cannot be underestimated since its reliability and precision and the ample information it provides are unsurpassed." – E.F.K.Chances are, if you have ever visited a medieval European castle or read about such castles online, you have probably heard that newel staircases in these castles were intentionally always designed in the form of a clockwise spiral to give the most space to the right-handed defenders at the top of the stairs to draw and swing their swords while simultaneously restricting the space available to the right-handed attackers attempting to ascend the staircase. As such it is a unique and indispensable reference tool for linguists, and a research instrument that belongs in any respectable linguistics library." – Pierre Swiggers, in: Historiographia Linguistica, 43/3 (2016) "The BL/LB is, since its start, a bibliography covering the entire, continuously extending and diversifying field of the language sciences, with reference to all known language families and languages, past and present. Hughes, Corwen, UK, in: Reference Reviews, 23/7 (2009) "The Permanent International Committee of Linguists and publisher Brill deserve our wholehearted praise for continuing and enhancing this splendid annual - essential for university libraries either in print or online - and for the welcome developments to the online service. Primary sources and language documentation, especially of lesser studied languages, e.g.Dictionaries on lesser studied languages.Textbooks and handbooks catered to students.Books: monographs and edited volumes incl.Publication forms included in Linguistic Bibliography: Subjects included in Linguistic Bibliography: Citations are exportable in various formats.Save, print, and email functions available.Over 1,000 subject keywords and 4,000 language keywords.Simple, full-text, and advanced search options.References to publications written in more than 150 different languages (translations and transliterations provided wherever necessary).DOI links and abstracts increasingly available.References contain links to full-text and library services when available.2,000 new references added monthly, plus retro-digitized references made freely accessible.Contains about 600,000 bibliographical references. ![]() Compiled, analyzed, and annotated by an international team of specialists.References for publications published from 1993 on are available for subscribers of the premium edition. References from retro-digitized volumes from before 1993 are gradually being added and made available in free access. NEW: In 2023 Brill relaunched Linguistic Bibliography Online on its new dedicated bibliographies platform in the so-called ‘freemium’ model. Annual print volumes of Linguistic Bibliography are also published. Linguistic Bibliography Online includes all bibliographical references of the printed yearbooks since 1991, as well as additional materials which are exclusive to the online version, such as references to online resources. With a tradition of over seventy years, and with about 2,000 new references added every month, the Linguistic Bibliography Online remains the most comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography for every scholar and student of linguistics. Bibliographical references of publications in any language are collected, analyzed, and annotated by a team of linguists and bibliographers from around the world. The bibliography aims to cover all languages of the world, paying particular attention to publications on endangered and lesser-studied languages. ![]() About 40,000 descriptions (of works published before 1993) are available in free access, and about 560,000 descriptions (of works published from 1993 on) are available in the premium edition. Linguistic Bibliography Online contains about 600,000 detailed bibliographical descriptions of linguistic publications on general and applied linguistics.
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