The World Atlas of Language : Mapping the Story of Speech and Writing

A fascinating visual exploration of all things linguistic, tracing how words, sounds, scripts, norms, and borders are in constant fluxDid you know that more than 7,000 languages are spoken today, but that fifty percent of the world’s people use only fifteen of them? Or that there are hundreds of separate sign languages? Or that a dog’s bark is represented with wildly different sounds in English, Czech, and Thai? In The World Atlas of Language, Gaston Dorren, the international bestselling author of Lingo, Babel, and other books about languages, invites readers on a captivating journey that charts the geographical spread of languages and dialects around the world through the ages—and tells the incredible stories behind them in his unmistakable style. The result is an essential reference for anyone who loves how humans speak, write—and vary. Organized by theme and richly illustrated throughout with full-color maps, timelines, and other graphics, this book traces the origins and evolutions of the world’s languages and of the communities that nurture and live in them. From Old, Middle, and Modern English and the great linguistic variety of the Americas to the lingua francas of Africa and the many unique tongues that are about to fall silent, the atlas reveals an astonishing linguistic diversity. Features 100 full-color maps, timelines, and other graphicsTells engaging stories about the origins and evolutions of languages and how they have been carried around the world by nations, religions, and empiresIncludes sections on:Where—Where languages are spoken and where they have moved over timeWhat—Words, scripts, sounds, and grammarWhen—Language diversity and the way languages grow, decline, and change across historyWhat Else—Language and nationalism, books and readers, names, and related topicsAn essential reference for readers interested in languages, words, and their histories