Languages of the World: An Introduction

by Asya Pereltsvaig

Overview

Are you curious to know what all languages have in common and how they differ? Do you want to find out how language can be used to trace different peoples and their past? Now in its fourth edition, this fascinating book guides beginners through the rich diversity of the world's languages. It presupposes no background in linguistics, and introduces key concepts with the help of problem sets, end-of-chapter exercises and an extensive bibliography. It is illustrated with detailed maps and charts of language families throughout, and engaging sidebars and 'food for thought' boxes contextualise and bring the languages to life with demographic, social, historical, and geographical facts. This edition has been extensively updated with a new section on the languages of the Caribbean, new problem sets, and an updated glossary and index. Supplementary online materials includes links to all websites mentioned, and answers to the exercises for instructors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009338653
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/07/2023
Edition description:	4th Revised ed.
Pages:	600
Product dimensions:	6.73(w) x 9.65(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

Asya Pereltsvaig is an independent scholar, a native speaker of Russian, and a fluent speaker of three other languages. For the last twenty 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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations used in the glosses; 1. Introduction: 1.1. Languages, dialects, and accents; 1.2. Language families; 1.3. Linguistic diversity; 1.4. Focus on: how do languages diversify?; 2. Languages of Europe: 2.1. Indo-European Languages; 2.2. Discovery of the Indo-European family and comparative reconstruction; 2.3. The Indo-European controversy; 2.4. Non- Indo-European languages of Europe: 2.4.1. Basque; 2.5. Focus on: endangered languages of Europe; 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 India; 3.4. Focus on: universals and the Parametric theory of language; 4. Languages of Northern Eurasia: 4.1. Finno-Ugric languages; 4.2. Other Uralic languages; 4.3. Other languages of Siberia; 4.4. Russian-based pidgins of Siberia; 4.5. Focus on: evidential markers in Yukaghir languages; 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: field Linguistics; 6. Languages of the Greater Middle East: 6.1. Turkic languages; 6.2. Afroasiatic languages: 6.2.1. Semitic languages; 6.3. Focus on: language contact; 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; 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; 9. Languages of the South Sea Islands: 9.1. Discovery of the Austronesian family and the Austronesian Homeland; 9.2. The Austronesian realm; 9.3. The Austronesian prototype; 9.4. Focus on: the mystery of Malagasy; 10. Aboriginal Languages of Papua New Guinea and Australia: 10.1. Languages of Papua New Guinea; 10.2. Languages of Australia; 10.3. Focus on: is Dyirbal a primitive language?; 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; 12. Macro Families: 12.1. Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis; 12.2. Altaic and Ural-Altaic macro-families; 12.3. The Nostratic and Eurasiatic hypotheses; 12.4. Other hypothesized macro language families; 13. Pidgins, Creoles, and Other Mixed Languages: 13.1. Pidgins; 13.2. Creoles; Glossary; Index of languages; Bibliography.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Advance praise: “This comprehensive and highly-informative book offers a plethora of intriguing, richly-documented facts. Written in an easy style, it is a great read for both beginning and advanced-level students and laypersons.” —Edith Moravcsik, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

"A lively and engaging introduction to the richness and diversity of the world's languages." —Greville G. Corbett, University of Surrey

Editorial Reviews

Advance praise: ‘This book is unique, there are no other books like it.' Bradley Montgomery-Anderson, Northeastern State University, Oklahoma

Advance praise: ‘… there is no other material at present which so exactly fits the needs of our course … the text is really reader-friendly, a pleasure to use in class, and popular with the students. The inclusion of assignments and exercises in every chapter is a very valuable addition, and the addition of different kinds of boxes with further information makes the reading process more flexible and multi-dimensional.' Arthur Holmer, Lunds Universitet, Sweden

From the Publisher