Die Sprachfamilien der Welt in Geschichte und Gegenwart 02

In its combination of professionally reliable historical, sociolinguistic, and linguistic information, this work fills a long-standing gap in the German-language scholarly literature. The second part of this work provides a comprehensive overview of all currently known language families and isolated languages in the geographical regions of Africa, the Indo-Pacific, Australia, and the Americas, while also considering extinct languages. For each language unit, the historical development, language and speaker numbers, writing systems, external relations, homeland, and distribution areas, as well as their linguistic characteristics, are addressed and illustrated with numerous examples. Various brief grammatical descriptions of individual languages, which are contrasted with the structures of well-known European school languages, provide a clear picture.