Languages of the World: An IntroductionCambridge University Press, 9 feb 2012 - 278 pagine What do all human languages have in common and in what ways are they different? How can language be used to trace different peoples and their past? Are certain languages similar because of common descent or language contact? Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, this textbook introduces readers to the rich diversity of human languages, familiarizing students with the variety and typology of languages around the world. Linguistic terms and concepts are explained, in the text and in the glossary, and illustrated with simple, accessible examples. Eighteen language maps and numerous language family charts enable students to place a language geographically or genealogically. A supporting website includes additional language maps and sound recordings that can be used to illustrate the peculiarities of the sound systems of various languages. 'Test yourself' questions throughout the book make it easier for students to analyze data from unfamiliar languages. |
Sommario
1 Introduction | 1 |
2 IndoEuropean languages | 13 |
3 NonIndoEuropean languages of Europe and India | 39 |
4 Languages of the Caucasus | 64 |
5 Languages of Northern Africa Middle East and Central Asia | 86 |
6 Languages of subSaharan Africa | 105 |
7 Languages of eastern Asia | 124 |
8 Languages of the South Sea Islands | 143 |
10 Native languages of the Americas | 183 |
11 Macro families | 205 |
12 Pidgins creoles and other mixed languages | 230 |
Glossary | 254 |
References | 260 |
271 | |
277 | |
9 Aboriginal languages of Australia and Papua New Guinea | 166 |
Altre edizioni - Visualizza tutto
Parole e frasi comuni
Africa Afroasiatic agglutinative agreement Altaic Arabic Asia Austronesian languages Basque branch Caucasus Chapter Chinese cognates consonants creoles culture dialects discussed Dravidian languages Dyirbal East eastern encode English ergative European example extinct Finnish Finno-Ugric languages French gender genetic Georgian German grammatical groups guages Hebrew Hungarian hypothesis Indo-European languages islands Japanese Jewish languages Khoisan Korean language family languages spoken Latin lexical linguistic macro family Malagasy Mandarin marked marker meaning million speakers morpheme morphology Niger-Congo Nilo-Saharan North Northeast Caucasian languages northern Norwegian Nostratic noun classes object Ossetian Pama-Nyungan languages Papua New Guinea Papuan languages patterns pidgin Pirahã plural Polynesian postpositions preceding the noun prefix prepositions pronounced proposed Proto-Indo-European Romani root Russenorsk Russian scholars Section Semitic languages sentence similar sound South southern Spanish subjects of intransitives suffix Swahili Table tense tone Turkic languages Turkish typically Udmurt Uralic Uzbek verb vocabulary vowel word order Yiddish