The next century will see more than half of the world’s 6, 000
languages become extinct, and most of these will disappear without
being adequately recorded. Written by one of the leading figures in
language documentation, 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 draws 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
Innehållsförteckning
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue xv
A Note on the Presentation of Linguistic Material xx
Part I The Library of Babel 1
1 Warramurrungunji’s Children 5
2 Four Millennia to Tune In 24
Part II A Great Feast of Languages 45
3 A Galapagos of Tongues 49
4 Your Mind in Mine: Social Cognition in Grammar 69
Part III Faint Tracks in an Ancient Wordscape: Languages and Deep World History 81
5 Sprung from Some Common Source 85
6 Travels in the Logosphere: Hooking Ancient Words onto Ancient Worlds 105
7 Keys to Decipherment: How Living Languages Can Unlock Forgotten Scripts 129
Part IV Ratchetting Each Other Up: The Coevolution of Language, Culture, and Thought 155
8 Trellises of the Mind: How Language Trains Thought 159
9 What Verse and Verbal Art Can Weave 182
Part V Listening While We Can 205
10 Renewing the Word 207
Epilogue: Sitting in the Dust, Standing in the Sky 229
Notes 232
References 249
Index of Languages and Language Families 274
Index 280
Om författaren
Nicholas Evans is Professor of Linguistics at the Australian National University and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is on the editorial boards of the journals Linguistic Typology and Australian Journal of Linguistics, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. He is the author of a number of books, including Bininj Gun-wok (2 volumes, 2001), Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective (co-edited with Patrick Mc Convell, 1998), and A Grammar of Kayardild (1992).
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