Books : Nonfiction : Social Sciences : Linguistics : Historical & Comparative

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Books : Nonfiction : Social Sciences : Linguistics : Historical & Comparative

• The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language

  John McWhorter

  
  There are approximately 6000 languages on earth today, the descendants of the tongue first spoken by homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. How did they all develop? What happened to the first language?
  In this irreverent romp through territory too often claimed by stodgy grammarians, McWhorter ranges across linguistic theory, geography, history, and pop culture to tell the fascinating story of how thousands of very different languages have evolved from a single, original source in a natural process similar to biological evolution. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, he reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment.
  Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, creoles, patois and nonstandard dialects. McWhorter also discusses current theories on what the first language might have been like, why dialects should not be considered "bad speech" and why most of today's languages will be extinct in 100 years.
  The first book written for the layperson about the natural history of language, Power of Babel is a dazzling tour de force that will leave readers anything but speechless.
  
  
   

• Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World's Languages

  Daniel Nettle, Suzanne Romaine

  
  Few people know that nearly 100 native languages once spoken in what is now California are near extinction, or that most of Australia's 250 aboriginal languages have vanished. In fact, at least half of the world's languages may die out in the next century. What has happened to these voices? Should we be alarmed about the disappearance of linguistic diversity?
  The authors of Vanishing Voices assert that this trend is far more than simply disturbing. Making explicit the link between language survival and environmental issues, they argue that the extinction of languages is part of the larger picture of near-total collapse of the worldwide ecosystem. Indeed, the authors contend that the struggle to preserve precious environmental resources-such as the rainforest-cannot be separated from the struggle to maintain diverse cultures, and that the causes of language death, like that of ecological destruction, lie at the intersection of ecology and politics.
  And while Nettle and Romaine defend the world's endangered languages, they also pay homage to the last speakers of dying tongues, such as Red Thundercloud, a Native American in South Carolina, Ned Mandrell, with whom the Manx language passed away in 1974, and Arthur Bennett, an Australian, the last person to know more than a few words of Mbabaram.
  In our languages lies the accumulated knowledge of humanity. Indeed, each language is a unique window on experience. Vanishing Voices is a call to preserve this resource, before it is too late.
  
   

• Historical Linguistics: An Introduction

  Lyle Campbell

  
  Historical linguistics is the study of how and why language changes—both the methods of investigating language change and the theories designed to explain these changes. This highly accessible introductory text takes a hands-on, how-to approach, rather than just talking about the subject as many texts do. The book contains abundant examples both from familiar European languages, to make the topics accessible, and from a variety of non-European languages, to illustrate the depth and range of the concepts. The book also covers a number of essential topics neglected by most texts, including syntactic change, methods for investigating distant genetic relationship, linguistic prehistory, and grammaticalization.
  
   

• Language Death

  David Crystal

  
  The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'Why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. The book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.
  
   

• Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages

  Mark Abley

  
  In Spoken Here, Mark Abley journeys around the world seeking out languages in peril -- Manx, Mohawk, Boro, Yiddish, and many more. Along the way he reveals delicious linguistic oddities and shows us what is lost when one of the world's six thousand tongues dies -- an irreplaceable worldview and a wealth of practical knowledge. He also examines the forces, from pop culture to creoles to global politics, that threaten to wipe out 90 percent of languages by this century's end.
  Abley encounters one of the last two speakers of an Australian language, whose tribal taboos forbid them to talk to each other. He spotlights those who believe that violence is the only way to save their tongue. He meets a Yiddish novelist who writes for an audience she knows doesn't exist. He pays tribute to such strange tongues as the Amazonian language last spoken by a parrot, the Caucasian language with no vowels, and the South Asian language whose innumerable verbs include gobray (to fall in a well unknowingly) and onsra (to love for the last time).
  Each of the languages Abley spotlights, from the familiar to the foreign, exemplifies the various threats that endanger languages worldwide. But many also prove their resilience, thanks to the efforts of their determined speakers and such unlikely tools as soap operas and pop music. Abley meets the crusaders as well as the uncaring, all of whom offer surprising insight into this centuries-old debate.
  Spoken Here is a singular travelogue, a compelling case for linguistic diversity, and a treasure trove for anyone who loves any language.
  
   

• Runes (Reading the Past, Vol 4)

  R. I. Page

  
  In Orkney, Shetland and the Scottish Islands, in Ireland, the Isle of Man and above all in Scandinavia, travelers still come upon great memorial stones, inscribed with the curious angular alphabet called runes. This is the story of these inscriptions from the earliest Continental carvings of the late second century A.D. through to the Viking age.
  
   

• Cuneiform (Reading the Past, Vol 3)

  C. B. F. Walker

  
  The cuneiform writing system flourished in the Near East from before 3000 BC to AD 75. This book surveys the development of the script from the earliest pictographic signs to the latest astronomical tablets and the process by which it came to be used for writing many different Near Eastern languages. Sample texts show how the script is analysed into words and syllables and how to read the names of the most famous kings as they appear on monuments. In addition, extracts from contemporary Sumerian literature and school texts give an account of the training of the scribes, and the various types of inscription they wrote are illustrated. The decipherment of cuneiform is explained and--for the collector--some guidelines for the identification of fake inscriptions are given.
  
   

• Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time

  Johanna Nichols

  
  In this ground-breaking book, Johanna Nichols proposes means of describing, comparing, and interpreting linguistic diversity, both genetic and structural, providing the foundations for a theory of diversity based upon population science. This book will interest linguists, archaeologists, and population specialists.
  
  "An awe-inspiring book, unequalled in scope, originality, and the range of language data considered."—Anna Siewierska, Linguistics
  
  "Fascinating. . . . A brilliant pioneering study."—Journal of Indo-European Studies
  
  "A superbly reasoned book."—John A. C. Greppin, Times Literary Supplement
  
   

• Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs)

  Hans Henrich Hock, Brian D. Joseph

  
  Why does language change? Why can we speak to and understand our parents but have trouble reading Shakespeare? Why is Chaucer's English of the 14th century so different from the modern English of the late 20th century that the two are essentially different languages? Why are Americans and English "one people divided by a common language"? Therefore, can the language of Chaucer and modern English - modern British and American English - still be called the same language? This book provides answers to questions like these in a straightforward way, aimed at the non-specialist.
  
   

• Language in Danger

  Andrew Dalby

  

  Every two weeks the world loses another indigenous language. Of the approximately 5,000 languages spoken around the globe today, Dalby predicts that half will be lost during this century. How will this linguistic extinction affect our lives? Is there a possibility that humanity will become a monolingual species? Should we care?

  
   

• The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics)

  
  The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, written by a distinguished international roster of contributors, reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline in its multifaceted pursuits. It is a convenient, hand-held repository of the essential knowledge about the study of language variation and change.
  

  
  
  • Written by internationally recognized experts in the field.
    
  • Reflects the vitality and growth of the discipline.
    
  • Discusses the ideas that drive the field and is illustrated with empirical studies.
    
  • Includes explanatory introductions which set out the boundaries of the field and place each of the chapters into perspective.
  
   

• Understanding Colonial Handwriting

  Harriet Stryker-Rodda

  
  In genealogical research it is all very well to locate original records, but to read them correctly is another matter altogether. Few people know this better than Harriet Stryker-Rodda who, after years of experience searching through colonial records, has developed a simple technique for reading colonial handwriting. In this handy little book, Mrs. Stryker-Rodda presents examples of colonial letter forms and script, showing the letter forms in the process of development and marking the ways in which they differ from later letter forms. She also provides a comparison of English and American handwriting and examples of name forms and signatures all to bear out her central thesis, that the reader must find meaning in a group of symbols without needing to see each letter of which the whole is composed. This excellent guidebook is indispensable in dealing with the problems of reading and interpretation.
  
   

• The Handbook of Historical Linguistics (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics)

  
  The Handbook of Historical Linguistics provides a detailed account of the numerous issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics most directly concerned with language change as well as past language states.
  
• Contains an extensive introduction that places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context within linguistics and the historical sciences in general
  
• Covers the methodology of historical linguistics and presents sophisticated overviews of the principles governing phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change
  
• Includes contributions from the leading specialists in the field