Languages of the World

Are you curious to know what all languages have in common and how they differ? Do you want to find out how language can be used to trace different peoples and their past? Now in its fourth edition, this fascinating book guides beginners through the rich diversity of the world's languages. It presupposes no background in linguistics, and introduces key concepts with the help of problem sets, end-of-chapter exercises and an extensive bibliography. It is illustrated with detailed maps and charts of language families throughout, and engaging sidebars and 'food for thought' boxes contextualise and bring the languages to life with demographic, social, historical, and geographical facts. This edition has been extensively updated with a new section on the languages of the Caribbean, new problem sets, and an updated glossary and index. Supplementary online materials includes links to all websites mentioned, and answers to the exercises for instructors.

'A fine panoramic view of the rich variety of the world's languages.' Greville G. Corbett, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey, 'Reading this book reminds me of why I became a linguist. Pereltsvaig provides a fascinating overview of human languages, exploring their diversity, commonalities, and history. This book is accessible to anyone who is curious about language but is also detailed and extensive enough to be a valuable resource for linguistic scholars, teachers, and students.' Diane Massam, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto

Asya Pereltsvaig is an independent scholar, a native speaker of Russian, and a fluent speaker of three other languages. For the last twenty years, she has taught courses in linguistics at Yale, Cornell, Stanford, and several other universities around the world. Her academic interests include languages, history, genetics, and the relationship between the three.