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Title: The World's Major Languages by Bernard Comrie ISBN: 0-19-506511-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $42.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A wonderful survey
Comment: The only thing I can say negative about this book is that it came out in hardcover first, for nearly $100, and after I bought that, the paperback came out at a third of the price. It is one of only a couple of books for which I was ever willing to pay that much money, and that alone should be a clue as to how much I liked it.
There are chapters on most of the important languages of the world, as well as some of the language families that include these languages. Each chapter is by a different expert (actually, a few people wrote more than one chapter), and so there is some unevenness in the treatment. But in general, each of the single-language chapters gives a relatively detailed summary of the grammar and vocabulary of the language it covers; the language-family chapters describe the common features of languages in the family. The level of detail is not that of a textbook in the language, but rather enough to give someone like myself (interested in linguistics, but not fluent in anything but my own native English) a good feeling for how the language works.
The first book of this type that I ever saw was Mario Pei's "The World's Chief Languages." This book goes into more detail on any individual language than Pei's book did, but covers a smaller number of languages (though more varied ones). It belongs in the library of anyone who wants to know a little bit of how a lot of languages work.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent survey of the world's languages
Comment: This is easily one of the most useful books a student of linguistics, especially one interested in typology and language variation, could possibly have. I have often turned to it to satisfy my curiosity about a particular language or language family, and I have never been disappointed. The articles, all written by specialists in the language in question, are excellent, the typeface is very pleasant, and the binding is highly durable, suitable for constant use. The only complaint I could make would be about the choice of languages. I realize that only "the world's major languages" were supposed to be covered in this volume, but I would have liked to see an article on a Native American language (say, Quechua), or at least one on Native American languages in general. Aside from that, though, this book is wonderfully complete, and I have found it to be unmatched as a quick reference. It's probably my favorite non-fiction book.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent 1-volume reference
Comment: This is a wonderfully thick, dense, wide-ranging piece of work. If you love delving into the complexities and peculiarities of individual languages, you could get lost in this book for hours on end. I checked out every section on a language &/or family that I'm well informed about, and found the info solid and trustworthy throughout.
The contributors are mostly British and American academic linguists, each of whom wrote a section. While there are differences in style--some iron-gray academic, some a bit more lively and colloquial--each author makes sure that each language receives coverage on all its levels. An abundance of examples and explanations ensures that the descriptions, though highly technical and dense, do not lapse into obscurity. This is probably the best 1-volume work of its kind that I have seen. Its only drawback is that some of the world's most interesting languages (such as Basque and other isolates; pidgins & creoles; and some Native American and Australian languages) receive little space due to the avowed focus on languages with large numbers of speakers. A volume which included sections on minor languages / families would more accurately represent the great variety that exists in languages throughout the world.
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Title: The Languages of the World by Kenneth Katzner ISBN: 0415250048 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group Pub. Date: 10 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Language Universals and Linguistic Typology: Syntax and Morphology by Bernard Comrie ISBN: 0226114333 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1989 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: An Introduction to the Languages of the World by Anatole Lyovin ISBN: 0195081161 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems by Florian Coulmas ISBN: 063121481X Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction by Geoffrey Sampson ISBN: 0804717567 Publisher: Tuttle Publishing Pub. Date: 01 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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