BIBFRAME Work

Title

Languages of the world

Type

  • Monograph
  • Text

Contribution

Subject

Language

Illustrative Content

Classification

Content

Supplementary content

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction -- 1.1. Languages, Dialects, and Accents -- 1.2. Language Families -- 1.3. How Language Families Are Established: Comparative Reconstruction -- 1.4. Linguistic Diversity -- 1.5. How Do Languages Diversify? -- 1.6. Field Linguistics -- 1.7. Focus on: Language Maps -- Do It Yourself -- 2. Languages of Europe -- 2.1. The Indo-European Language Family -- 2.2. The Indo-European Controversy -- 2.3. Non-Indo-European Languages of Europe -- 2.4. Focus on: Endangered Languages of Europe -- Do It Yourself -- 3. Languages of Iran and South Asia -- 3.1. Indo-European Languages of Iran and South Asia -- 3.1.1. Iranian Languages -- 3.1.2. Indo-Aryan Languages -- 3.2. Dravidian Languages -- 3.3. Other Languages of South Asia -- 3.4. Focus on: Universals and the Parametric Theory of Language -- Do It Yourself -- 4. Languages of Northern Eurasia -- 4.1. Finno-Ugric Languages -- 4.2. Other Uralic Languages -- 4.3. Turkic Languages -- 4.4. Other Languages of Siberia -- 4.5. Focus on: Evidential Markers -- Do It Yourself -- 5. Languages of the Caucasus -- 5.1. Northwest Caucasian Languages -- 5.2. Northeast Caucasian Languages -- 5.3. Kartvelian Languages -- 5.4. Indo-European Languages in the Caucasus -- 5.5. Focus on: Head-Marking vs. Dependent-Marking -- Do It Yourself -- 6. Languages of the Greater Middle East -- 6.1. Afroasiatic Languages -- 6.2. Semitic Languages -- 6.3. Berber Languages -- 6.4. Focus on: Language Contact -- Do It Yourself -- 7. Languages of Sub-Saharan Africa -- 7.1. Nilo-Saharan Languages -- 7.2. Niger-Congo Languages -- 7.3. Khoisan Languages -- 7.4. Focus on: Official Languages, Trade Languages, and Creole Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa -- Do It Yourself -- 8. Languages of Eastern Asia -- 8.1. Sino-Tibetan Languages -- 8.2. Austro-Asiatic Languages -- 8.3. Tai-Kadai Languages -- 8.4. Japanese and Korean -- 8.5. Focus on: Isolating Morphology and Language Change -- Do It Yourself -- 9. Languages of the South Sea Islands -- 9.1. Discovery of the Austronesian Family and the Austronesian Homeland -- 9.2. Today's Austronesian Languages and the Internal Classification of the Family -- 9.3. Linguistic Properties of Austronesian Languages -- 9.4. Focus on: The Mystery of Malagasy -- Do It Yourself -- 10. Aboriginal Languages of New Guinea and Australia -- 10.1. Languages of New Guinea -- 10.1.1. Overview of Papuan Languages -- 10.1.2. Areal Papuan Features -- 10.1.3. Tok Pisin -- 10.2. Languages of Australia -- 10.3. Focus on: Is There Such a Thing as a Primitive Language? -- Do It Yourself -- 11. Native Languages of the Americas -- 11.1. Languages of North America -- 11.2. Languages of Meso-America -- 11.3. Languages of South America -- 11.4. Focus on: The Pirahã Controversy -- Do It Yourself -- 12. Remaining Issues: Macro Families, Sign Languages, and Constructed Languages -- 12.1. Macro Families -- 12.1.1. The Dene-Yeniseian Hypothesis -- 12.1.2. Altaic and Ural-Altaic Macro Families -- 12.1.3. The Nostratic and Eurasiatic Hypotheses -- 12.1.4. Other Hypothesized Macro Families -- 12.2. Sign Languages -- 12.3. Constructed Languages -- Do It Yourself.

Authorized Access Point

Pereltsvaig, Asya, 1972-. Languages of the world

Intended audience

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11T20:19:08.417239+00:00
  • Agent: cbc
  • Status: c
  • Derived from: 24050581

Admin Metadata

  • Date: 2026-09-11
  • Cataloger id: Unknown
  • Description level: http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe-2-6-0/
  • Description language: eng
  • Description authentication: pcc

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