Hardcover: 669 pages
Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon; 1 edition (April 23, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 070071197X
ISBN-13: 978-0700711970
From Booklist
It can be said that most of the world's languages are endangered, because an estimated 96 percent of them are spoken by only 4 percent of the world's population. They are disappearing as the small groups of speakers are absorbed into larger cultures or die out without the children learning the language. This volume is an effort to briefly describe the status of the many languages that are in danger of disappearing within the first half of the twenty-first century. The degree of peril assigned to a language is based on whether or not the language is taught, the age of the youngest fluent speakers, and the total number of speakers. Languages that are just remembered as having been spoken are characterized as extinct. While Ethnologue: Languages of the World (SIL International, 2005) provides a country-by-country summary of all living languages and relies heavily on tables and maps, this volume is more concerned with linguistic families and is primarily narrative in form. Information is presented in large continental or regional groupings. The introductory essays for each large geographic area are excellent at providing historic overviews, descriptions of language families in the area, national issues, and some recommendations. Individual languages are arranged alphabetically, and entries for each language provide affiliation, demographic data, endangerment status, and threats. The text is accompanied by around 20 maps showing general regions and where endangered languages are concentrated. An "Index of Languages" completes the work. A library serving anthropologists, linguists, and historians will find that Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages and Ethnologue complement one another, and those libraries that can afford them will want both. The Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages is expensive but a valuable resource in academic and large public libraries. Scarth, Linda
Product DescriptionThe concern for the fast-disappearing language stocks of the world has arisen particularly in the past decade, as a result of the impact of globalization. This book appears as an answer to a felt need: to catalogue and describe those languages, making up the vast majority of the world's six thousand or more distinct tongues, which are in danger of disappearing within the next few decades. Endangerment is a complex issue, and the reasons why so many of the world's smaller, less empowered languages are not being passed on to future generations today are discussed in the book's introduction. The introduction is followed by regional sections, each authored by a notable specialist, combining to provide a comprehensive listing of every language which is likely to disappear within the next few decades. Each regional section comprises an introduction that deals with problems of language preservation peculiar to the area, surveys of known extinct languages, and problems of classification. The introduction is followed by a list of all known languages within the region, endangered or not, arranged by genetic affiliation, with endangered and extinct languages marked. This listing is followed by entries covering each language listed as endangered. Useful maps are provided to pinpoint the more complex clusters of smaller languages. The Encyclopedia therefore provides in a single resource: expert analysis of the current language policy situation in every multilingual country and on every continent, detailed descriptions of little-known languages from all over the world, and clear alphabetical entries, region by region, of all the world's languages currently thought to be in danger of extinction. The Encyclopedia of the Worlds Endangered Languages will be a necessary addition to all academic linguistics collections and will be a useful resource for a range of readers with an interest in development studies, cultural heritage and international affairs.
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