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Languages of the World

Languages of the World

Languages of the World

An Introduction
3rd Edition
September 2020
Temporarily unavailable - available from January 2025
Paperback
9781108748124

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    Are you curious to know what all human languages have in common and in what ways they differ? Do you want to find out how language can be used to trace different peoples and their past? Then this book is for you! Now in its third edition, it guides beginners through the rich diversity of the world's languages. It presupposes no background in linguistics, and introduces the reader to linguistic concepts with the help of problem sets, end of chapter exercises and an extensive bibliography. Charts of language families provide geographical and genealogical information, and engaging sidebars with demographic, social, historical and geographical facts help to contextualise and bring languages to life. This edition includes a fully updated glossary of all linguistic terms used, new problem sets, and a new chapter on cartography. Supplementary online materials include links to all websites mentioned, and answers to the exercises for instructors.

    • All terminology introduced in the book is defined in the text and in the updated glossary at the end of the book
    • A new section on linguistic cartography is included in this edition to help students who are unable to place a language geographically or genealogically
    • Each chapter contains several problem sets designed to teach students with no background in linguistics to analyze data from unfamiliar languages, with numerous new sets added to this edition

    Product details

    September 2020
    Paperback
    9781108748124
    500 pages
    243 × 169 × 23 mm
    0.96kg
    23 b/w illus. 40 tables
    Temporarily unavailable - available from January 2025

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • 1. Introduction
    • 2. Languages of Europe
    • 3. Languages of Iran and South Asia
    • 4. Languages of Northern Eurasia
    • 5. Languages of the Caucasus
    • 6. Languages of the Greater Middle East
    • 7. Languages of sub-Saharan Africa
    • 8. Languages of eastern Asia
    • 9. Languages of the South Sea Islands
    • 10. Aboriginal languages of New Guinea and Australia
    • 11. Native languages of the Americas
    • 12. Remaining issues: macro families, sign languages, and constructed languages
    • Glossary
    • Index of languages
    • Index of terms
    • Bibliography.
      Author
    • Asya Pereltsvaig

      Asya Pereltsvaig is a native speaker of Russian and a fluent speaker of three other languages. For the last fifteen years, she has taught courses in linguistics at Yale, Cornell, Stanford and several other universities around the world. Her academic interests include languages, history, genetics and the relationship between the three.