Languages In The World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language

This innovative introduction outlines the structure anddistribution of the world’s languages, charting theirevolution over the past 200,000 years.

• Balances linguistic analysis with socio-historical andpolitical context, offering a cohesive picture of the relationshipbetween language and society
• Provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the study oflanguage by drawing not only on the diverse fields of linguistics(structural, linguist anthropology, historical, sociolinguistics),but also on history, biology, genetics, sociology, and more
• Includes nine detailed language profiles on Kurdish, Arabic,Tibetan, Hawaiian, Vietnamese, Tamil, !Xóõ (Taa),Mongolian, and Quiché
• A companion website offers a host of supplementary materialsincluding, sound files, further exercises, and detailedintroductory information for students new to linguistics