Author: Zoran Nikolic Publisher: HarperCollins UK ISBN: 0008524041 Category : Foreign Language Study Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
We communicate through the spoken and written word and language has evolved over the centuries. Many languages have survived although only in small pockets throughout the world. This book explores a selection of those languages.
Author: Zoran Nikolic Publisher: Collins ISBN: 9780008469597 Category : Historical linguistics Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
We communicate through the spoken and written word and language has evolved over the centuries. Many languages have survived although only in small pockets throughout the world. This book explores a selection of those languages and some that have now been lost forever. Selection of languages included; ISLANDS OF LANGUAGE ISOLATES - Basque language, Spain/France - Ainu, Japan/Russia - Burushaski, Pakistan - Huave language, Mexico INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE ISLANDS - u er-Sandevo; Selemlija, N. Macedoniae - Trinidadian French Creole, Trinidad & Tobago - Y Wladfa, a Welsh colony in Argentina - Cornish language - Vakifli, Turkey - Bolze language of Switzerland NON-IE LANGUAGE ISLANDS IN EUROPE - Ugric languages - Gagauz language - Kalmyk Oirat language LANGUAGE ISLANDS AROUND THE WORLD - Yele language, Rossel Island, Papua New Guinea - Formosan languages - Kumzari language, Oman "WEIRD" LANGUAGES - Polari language, UK - Shelta traveller language of Ireland EXTINCT LANGUAGE ISLANDS - Sumerian language - Potato Germans in Denmark - Crimean Gothic These and many more instances are captured in this fascinating book full of strange language intrigue.
Author: R. M. W. Dixon Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521570213 Category : Foreign Language Study Languages : en Pages : 482
Book Description
The Amazon Basin is arguably both one of the least-known and the most complex linguistic regions in the world. It is the home of some 300 languages belonging to around twenty language families, plus more than a dozen genetic isolates, and many of these languages (often incompletely documented and mostly endangered) show properties that constitute exceptions to received ideas about linguistic universals. This book provides an overview in a single volume of this rich and exciting linguistic area. The editors and contributors have sought to make their descriptions as clear and accessible as possible, in order to provide a basis for further research on the structural characteristics of Amazonian languages and their genetic and areal relationships, as well as a point of entry to important cross-linguistic data for the wider constituency of theoretical linguists.
Author: Joshua Foer Publisher: Workman Publishing ISBN: 076118967X Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 481
Book Description
It's time to get off the beaten path. Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust, Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world. Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. Created by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton, ATLAS OBSCURA revels in the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious. Every page expands our sense of how strange and marvelous the world really is. And with its compelling descriptions, hundreds of photographs, surprising charts, maps for every region of the world, it is a book to enter anywhere, and will be as appealing to the armchair traveler as the die-hard adventurer. Anyone can be a tourist. ATLAS OBSCURA is for the explorer.
Author: Christopher Moseley Publisher: UNESCO ISBN: 9231040960 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 221
Book Description
Languages are not only tools of communication, they also reflect a view of the world. Languages are vehicles of value systems and cultural expressions and are an essential component of the living heritage of humanity. Yet, many of them are in danger of disappearing. UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger tries to raise awareness on language endangerment. This third edition has been completely revised and expanded to include new series of maps and new points of view.
Author: Ben Knight Publisher: ISBN: 9783899554977 Category : Almanacs Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Looking through an atlas has always been a fascinating way to explore the world. Around the World is a contemporary evolution of an atlas tailored to our information age. With eye-catching graphics, current topics, and clear texts, the book is for anyone who is curious about the state of our planet and how we live today. Alongside classic facts about nature, history, population, culture, and politics, Around the World's compelling information graphics thoroughly explain complex processes that impact our lives such as global trade and changing demographics. The book gives added insight into our modern world through its visual exploration of subjects such as eating habits, overfishing, and internet providers, as well as events that have left indelible marks on our collective conscience including September 11, the Olympic Games, Japan's Fukushima disaster, and the sinking of the Titanic. Enthralling, attractive, and revealing, Around the World is a rich cornucopia of information about local peculiarities of global relevance that bring home the little differences--as well as the astoundingly large similarities--among the citizens of our world.
Author: William Labov Publisher: Walter de Gruyter ISBN: 3110206838 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 334
Book Description
The Atlas of North American English provides the first overall view of the pronunciation and vowel systems of the dialects of the U.S. and Canada. The Atlas re-defines the regional dialects of American English on the basis of sound changes active in the 1990s and draws new boundaries reflecting those changes. It is based on a telephone survey of 762 local speakers, representing all the urbanized areas of North America. It has been developed by Bill Labov, one of the leading sociolinguists of the world, together with his colleagues Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg. The Atlas consists of a printed volume accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM. The print and multimedia content is also available online. Combined Edition: Book and Multimedia CD-ROM The book contains 23 chapters that re-define the geographic boundaries of North American dialects and trace the influence of gender, age, education, and city size on the progress of sound change; findings that show a dramatic and increasing divergence of English in North America; 139 four color maps that illustrate the regional distribution of phonological and phonetic variables across the North American continent; 120 four color vowel charts of individual speakers. The multimedia CD-ROM supplements the articles and maps by providing a data base with measurements of more than 100,000 vowels and mean values for 439 speakers; the Plotnik program for mapping each of the individual vowel systems; extended sound samples of all North American dialects; multimedia applications to enhance classroom presentations. Online Version: Book and CD-ROM content plus additional data The online version comprises the contents of the book and the multimedia CD-ROM along with additional data. It presents a wider selection of data, maps, and audio samples that will be recurrently updated; proffers simultaneous access to the information contained in the book and on the multimedia CD-ROM to all users in the university/library network; provides students with easy access to research material for classroom assignments. For more information, please contact Mouton de Gruyter: [email protected] System Requirements for CD-ROM and Online Version Windows PC: Pentium PC, Windows 9x, NT, or XP, at least 16MB RAM, CD-ROM Drive, 16 Bit Soundcard, SVGA (600 x 800 resolution) Apple MAC: OS 6 or higher, 16 Bit Soundcard, at least 16MB RAM Supported Browsers: Internet Explorer, 5.5 or 6 (Mac OS: Internet Explorer 5.1)/Netscape 7.x or higher/Mozilla 1.0 or higher/Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or higher PlugIns: Macromedia Flash Player 6/Acrobat Reader
Author: Gideon Defoe Publisher: Europa Editions ISBN: 1609456815 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
"Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated—and timely—history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist. “Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.” Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. Occasionally they explode violently. A few slip away almost unnoticed. Often the cause of death is either “got too greedy” or “Napoleon turned up.” Now and then they just hold a referendum and vote themselves out of existence. This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so full of schemers, racists, and con men that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff. Because of this – and because treating nation-states with too much reverence is the entire problem with pretty much everything – these accounts are not concerned with adding to the earnest flag saluting in the world, however nice some of the flags might be."
Author: Guy Deutscher Publisher: Metropolitan Books ISBN: 1429970111 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 317
Book Description
A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how—and whether—culture shapes language and language, culture Linguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even bigoted) chatter about the romance of Italian and the goose-stepping orderliness of German has made serious thinkers wary of the entire subject. But now, acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher has dared to reopen the issue. Can culture influence language—and vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Could our experience of the world depend on whether our language has a word for "blue"? Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are hard-wired in our genes and thus universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to all these questions is—yes. In thrilling fashion, he takes us from Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, from how to name the rainbow to why Russian water—a "she"—becomes a "he" once you dip a tea bag into her, demonstrating that language does in fact reflect culture in ways that are anything but trivial. Audacious, delightful, and field-changing, Through the Language Glass is a classic of intellectual discovery.
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Author: Zoran Nikolic
Author: Zoran Nikolic
Author: R. M. W. Dixon
Author: Joshua Foer
Author: Christopher Moseley
Author: David Crystal
Author: Ben Knight
Author: William Labov
Author: Gideon Defoe
Author: Guy Deutscher