Full Description
This third edition of Kenneth Katzner's best-selling guide to languages is essential reading for language enthusiasts everywhere. Written with the non-specialist in mind, its user-friendly style and layout, delightful original passages, and exotic scripts, will continue to fascinate the reader. This new edition has been thoroughly revised to include more languages, more countries, and up-to-date data on populations.
Features include:
*information on nearly 600 languages
*individual descriptions of 200 languages, with sample passages and English translations
*concise notes on where each language is spoken, its history, alphabet and pronunciation
*coverage of every country in the world, its main language and speaker numbers
*an introduction to language families
Contents
PART I Language families of the world, Chart, Indo-European languages, Uralic languages, Altaic languages, Caucasian languages, Dravidian languages, Munda languages, Sino-Tibetan languages, Mon-Khmer languages, Austronesian languages, Papuan languages, Australian languages, Paleo-Asiatic languages, Eskimo-Aleut languages, Niger-Congo languages, Afro-Asiatic languages, Chari-Nile languages, Khoisan languages , American Indian languages, Artificial languages, Pidgin and creole languages, PART II Individual languages, Europe, Former Soviet Union, Middle East, Asia, Oceania, Western Hemisphere, Africa, An artificial language PART III Country-by-country survey