ABSTRACT

This volume features over 50 of the world's languages and language families. The featured languages have been chosen based on the number of speakers, their role as official languages and their cultural and historical importance. Each language is looked at in depth, and the chapters provide information on both grammatical features and on salient features of the language's history and cultural role.

This second edition has been updated and revised. Two new languages, Amharic and Javanese, have been included.

This accessible volume will appeal to anyone with an interest in linguistics.

Key features:

  • Attention is paid to both grammatical and sociolinguistic features
  • Attention is concentrated on the world's major languages
  • Designed to be accessible to all readers with an interest in language.

chapter |22 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|28 pages

Indo-European Languages

chapter 2|8 pages

Germanic Languages

chapter 3|27 pages

English

chapter 4|24 pages

German

chapter 5|15 pages

Dutch

chapter 6|20 pages

Danish, Norwegian and Swedish

chapter 7|19 pages

Latin and the Italic Languages

chapter 8|7 pages

Romance Languages

chapter 9|26 pages

French

chapter 10|20 pages

Spanish

chapter 11|16 pages

Portuguese

chapter 12|20 pages

Italian

chapter 13|16 pages

Rumanian

chapter 14|5 pages

Slavonic Languages

chapter 15|15 pages

Russian

chapter 16|16 pages

Polish

chapter 17|25 pages

Czech and Slovak

chapter 19|26 pages

Greek

chapter 20|7 pages

Indo-Aryan Languages

chapter 21|19 pages

Sanskrit

chapter 22|18 pages

Hindi-Urdu

chapter 23|20 pages

Bengali

chapter 25|15 pages

Persian

chapter 26|16 pages

Pashto

chapter 27|7 pages

Uralic Languages

chapter 28|13 pages

Hungarian

chapter 29|21 pages

Finnish

chapter 31|6 pages

Afroasiatic Languages

chapter 32|9 pages

Semitic Languages

chapter 33|18 pages

Arabic

chapter 34|16 pages

Hebrew

chapter 35|24 pages

Amharic

chapter 36|17 pages

Hausa and the Chadic Languages

chapter 38|7 pages

Tai Languages

chapter 39|17 pages

Thai

chapter 40|16 pages

Vietnamese

chapter 41|10 pages

Sino-Tibetan Languages

chapter 42|21 pages

Chinese

chapter 43|17 pages

Burmese

chapter 44|23 pages

Japanese

chapter 45|15 pages

Korean

chapter 46|10 pages

Austronesian Languages

chapter 47|28 pages

Malay-Indonesian

chapter 48|14 pages

Javanese

chapter 49|23 pages

Tagalog

chapter 50|9 pages

Niger-Kordofanian Languages

chapter 52|20 pages

Swahili and the Bantu Languages