WILSON’S
FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD’S LANGUAGES NAMED
A 2001 CHOICE OUTSTANDING
ACADEMIC TITLE
New York, New York, January
2, 2001
A new
reference in the H.W. Wilson “Facts About” Series,
Facts
About the World’s Languages has been honored by Choice Magazine as
an Outstanding Academic Title of 2001, appearing on the
38th annual Outstanding Academic Title list in Choice’s January
2002 issue. Honorees were
selected for excellence in
scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to
the field, and for their value as important treatments of a specific
subject.
Facts
About the World’s Languages explores the structure, history and
culture of 191 languages worldwide. Languages spoken by two million or
more people are the focus of the volume.
Coverage does, however, make exceptions to the rule: such
noteworthy ancient languages as Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Chinese,
Akkadian, Tocharian, Sumerian, Coptic, Ge’ez, Punic, Etruscan,
Biblical Hebrew, Pali, and Sanskrit are included for their importance in
early linguistic scholarship and in the development of many other
languages. Additionally,
some languages with smaller populations are featured to represent less
frequently described
language families and to give a broader typological perspective: Nivkh,
Creek, Navajo, Cherokee, Eskimo, Warlpiri, and Arapesh, among them.
Though
linguistics is a highly technical discipline, the volume describes each
language in words a student or layperson can comprehend.
Technical
terms that are indispensable to a thorough understanding of the subject
are defined in the volume’s glossary.
Each
of 191 chapters is devoted to a single language and follows a consistent
structure. Headings
include:
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Language name:
including obsolete or pejorative terms, and the autonym (the name
speakers use for their own language)...
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Location: where the
language is currently spoken, plus where it has spread through
migration, colonization, or globalization...
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Family – the deemed
“genetic” classification for each family...
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Related
languges...
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Dialects
– forms that are mutually intelligible, but with varying
phonologies, lexicons, and grammatical characteristics...
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Number
of speakers – upper and lower estimates...
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Origin
and history...
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Orthography
and basic phonology – the written symbols and spelling
conventions, and inventory and nature of the sound system (with
consonant and vowel charts)...
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Basic
morphology – a detailed overview of word classes for each
language and the morphological systems available to them...
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Basic
syntax...
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Contact
with other languages...
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Common
words...
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Selected
bibliography – including standard dictionaries and linguistic
works for each language. Entries
are restricted to works done in English, unless the documented
language does not have a good history of scholarship in the
English-speaking community...
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Chapters
also include a section on Efforts to Preserve, Protect, and Promote the
Language, detailing the history and legacy of preservation programs for
“endangered” and
officially repressed languages.
The
volume also features three indexes: Index of Languages by Country, Index
of Languages by Family, and Index of Languages and Alternate Names.
Other
recently published volumes in the “Facts About” series include Facts
About American Immigration; Facts About the Twentieth Century; Facts
About Retiring in the United States; and Facts About the Presidents,
Seventh Edition. Forthcoming
volumes include Facts About China (Summer 2002).
The series also includes Facts About the World’s Nations;
Facts About the American Wars;
Facts About the Supreme Court of the United States;
Facts About the Congress; Facts
About the Cities, Second Edition; Facts
About the States, Second Edition; Facts
About the British Prime Ministers; and Facts About Canada, its Provinces
and Territories.
Review
copies of “Facts About” references are available to members of the
working press. Phone 1-800-367-6770 (1-718-588-8400 outside U.S. and
Canada).
Contact:
Roseward Sky
Phone (800) 367-6770, x2272
Email: rsky@hwwilson.com
Eileen Sutter
Phone (800) 367-6770, x2312
Email: esutter@hwwilson.com
