Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages

The concern for the fast-disappearing language stocks of the world has arisen particularly in the past decade, as a result of the impact of globalization. This book appears as an answer to a felt need: to catalogue and describe those languages, making up the vast majority of the world's six thousand or more distinct tongues, which are in danger of disappearing within the next few decades.

Endangerment is a complex issue, and the reasons why so many of the world's smaller, less empowered lan...