Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, Series Number 7)

ISBN 10: 0521437571 / ISBN 13: 9780521437578

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1992

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780521437578

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death (Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language, Series Number 7)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521437571
• ISBN 13: 9780521437578
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Over the past 500 years, half the known languages of the world have vanished. This comprehensive overview of the study of contracting and dying languages, composed of twenty essays, investigates the wide scope of languages currently under threat of extinction. These disappearances occur in diverse speech communities where the expanding languages are both familiar, such as English or Spanish, and less familiar, such as Swedish, Thai and Arabic. The volume concludes with a look at how research into language obsolescence may affect other aspects of linguistics and anthropology--first and second language acquisition, historical linguistics, the study of pidgins and creoles, language and social process.

Book Description

Over the past 500 years, half the known languages of the world have vanished. This comprehensive overview of contracting and dying languages, investigates the broad scope currently under threat of extinction.