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Title: The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World (Facts on File Library of Language and Literature Series) by Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky ISBN: 0-8160-5123-2 Publisher: Facts on File, Inc. Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating!!
Comment: The Atlas of Language is a good surprise for anyone interested in the origin and development of the languages of the world. I am quite familiar on many books on the subject and it is difficult to see so much good text information bundled with pictorial and graphical data of such quality and content.
Besides the basic info that all introductory books must have, "The Atlas of the Language" goes a step further, showing what is an amazingly simple and good example of a reconstructed text in Indo-european, the family of languages that generated Latin, Greek and Old Germanic, and thence English. The treatment of other families of languages, like Altaic and Uralic is quite adequate and there the reader has an almost graphic depction of the origins of modern languages like Finnish, Turkish and Corean, for example. The Semitic family of languages, from where comes Hebrew and the Arabic languages is also treated there but, in my opinion, in a way very insufficient way. Much attention is given instead to the languages of Oceania (Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia) where the great majority of the languages of today are spoken.
Also of importance are the charts that portray in a very easy manner the relationship of all the most important families of languages to the primitive family of unwritten languages spoken some 8.000 years ago!!! At the end of the book one can find a whole chapter on the story of the human alphabet, a so thrilling story that one is really glued to the text, very well written.
In my opinion, the Atlas of Languages delivers everything it promised and goes a little further, being a pretty much good book, both from the descriptive as from the written point of view.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 5
Summary: With brilliant full-color photographs and maps
Comment: Collaboratively compiled and edited by Bernard Comrie (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany), Stephen Matthews (Lecturer of Linguistics, University of Hong Kong), and Maria Polinksy (Professor of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego), this newly revised edition of The Atlas Of Languages introduces readers of all backgrounds to the unique features of grammar and vocabulary found in languages around the world. Brilliant full-color photographs and maps profusely illustrate the highly descriptive and "reader friendly" text. A special look at disappearing languages rounds out this first-rate and well-rounded resource, The Atlas Of Languages is an ideal addition to any school or community library reference collection.

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