book notice: Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages

[Harold Schiffman]

 Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages

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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 Description

The 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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