The Atlas of Languages
The Atlas of Languages: The Origin and Development of Languages Throughout the World
Consultant Editors: Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky
Published by Facts on File, 1996
This is a hardbound book, 9" by 12", running 224 colorful, illustrated pages.
This is a book about the world's languages, differing from many other language books in the extensive use of maps, diagrams and photo-illustrations. As an example of how it mixes text with graphics, pages 41 and 42, in the section of the book on "Europe and Eurasia," have two paragraphs of text (just a little less than on most pages in the book), a large map of Asia centered on Sibera that has language-areas color-coded to show their historical relationships, some text labeling that map, a box with a table showing the agglutinating characteristic of Altaic languages through seven cases, and two smaller photographs illustrating the Magyar and the Mongol cultures, with a few sentences about each.
The information is presented partially systematically and partially serendipidously. For each region of the world there are lists of languages, maps, text describing those languages and their relationships, as well as explanations of various, semi-random facts in comparative linguistics.
Curiously, the section on "Africa and the Middle East" is almost entirely about Africa and barely touches on the Middle East, a major disappointment.
Almost more of a popular non-fiction than an academic reference book, The Atlas of Languages is not terribly useful for looking up specific facts, but at least makes for fascinating reading.
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