Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us

ISBN: 978-0-631-23305-3

Hardcover

312 pages

May 2009, Wiley-Blackwell

List Price:	US $138.95
Government Price:	US $88.92
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The next century will see more than half of the world’s 6,000 languages go extinct, and most of these will disappear without being adequately recorded - this fascinating book explores what humanity stands to lose as a result
Explores the unique philosophy, knowledge, and cultural assumptions of languages, and their impact on our collective intellectual heritage
Questions why such linguistic diversity exists in the first place, and how can we can best respond to the challenge of recording and documenting these fragile oral traditions while they are still with us
Written by one of the leading figures in language documentation, and drawing on a wealth of vivid examples from his own field experience
Brings conceptual issues vividly to life by weaving in portraits of individual ‘last speakers’ and anecdotes about linguists and their discoveries