Provides linguistic descriptions of a selected assortment of languages from renowned scholars, as well as historical and cultural information for each language.
Nearly 200 international linguistics scholars contributed to this reference text for both the general public and specialists in linguistics. The text includes nearly all languages currently spoken by two million or more people, several noteworthy ancient languages, and several languages spoken by smaller populations but representative of some less frequently described language families. Each of the 191 entries includes basic outlines of the phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems; the history of the ethnolinguistic group; sociolinguistic contact information; political factors affecting the development of the language and the identity of the group; and a bibliography for further research. The entries use standard orthography, instead of IPA representation. Includes a glossary of linguistic terminology, and is indexed by country, family, and languages and alternative names. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
This product represents seven years of compilation from the work of nearly two hundred world-renowned scholars in linguistics. The volume explores the structure, history and culture of 191 languages worldwide, with the aim of providing both the general public and linguistics experts with an authoritative source of rich, structured data on the world's major ethnolinguistic groups.
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