Languages of the World: An IntroductionWhat do all human languages have in common and in what ways are they different? How can language be used to trace different peoples and their past? Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the new edition of this engaging textbook introduces readers to the rich diversity of human languages, familiarizing students with the variety and typology of languages around the world. Linguistic terms and concepts are explained, in the text and in the glossary, and illustrated with simple, accessible examples. Numerous language family charts enable students to place a language geographically or genealogically. Updated and revised throughout, the second edition includes two new chapters and new pedagogical features, such as 'Advanced' sections, textboxes and 'Did you know?' boxes. Important websites are integrated into the text, and each chapter includes a 'Do it yourself' section, comprising assignments, questions and problem sets. Supplementary online resources include illustrations, key term flashcards and useful links. This introduction is an essential resource for undergraduate courses on language typology, historical linguistics and general linguistics. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Languages of Europe | 20 |
Languages of Iran and South Asia | 57 |
Languages of Northern Eurasia | 85 |
Languages of the Greater Middle East | 152 |
Languages of SubSaharan Africa | 185 |
Languages of Eastern Asia | 213 |
Languages of the South Sea Islands | 243 |
Aboriginal Languages of New Guinea | 276 |
Native Languages of the Americas | 305 |
Macro Families | 337 |
Glossary | 358 |
364 | |
378 | |
387 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Adyghe Africa Afroasiatic agglutinative agreement Altaic Arabic Austro-Asiatic Austronesian languages Bantu Basque branch Caucasus Chapter Chinese classified cognates consider consonants dialects discussed distinct Dravidian languages Dyirbal East eastern encode endangered languages English ergative example extinct Finnish Finno-Ugric languages French fricative genetic Georgian German grammatical groups guages Guinea Hebrew Hindi Hungarian hypothesis indigenous Indo-Aryan languages Indo-European languages intransitives Itelmen Japanese Khoisan Korean language family languages spoken Latin lexical linguistic loanwords macro family Malagasy Mandarin marked marker meaning million speakers morphemes morphology native speakers Niger-Congo Nilo-Saharan North Northeast Caucasian northern Northwest Caucasian languages Nostratic noun classes noun phrase object Ossetian Papuan languages patterns pidgin Pirahã plural population postpositions prefix prepositions pronounced Proto-Indo-European region root Russian Semitic languages sentence Siberia similar Sino-Tibetan sound South Spanish speak suffix Swahili tense Turkic languages Turkish typically Uralic Uzbek verb vocabulary vowel Warlpiri word order