Launch of the Atlas of the World’s Languages
2nd edition

5.15pm, 12th December 2006

Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, SOAS

All welcome: RSVP elap@soas.ac.uk

Atlas of the World’s Languages, 2nd edition
General Editors: R.E. Asher & Christopher Moseley

Click here for A4 flyer [PDF: 500kB]

Presenting contributions from international scholars, covering over 6,000 languages and containing over 150 full-colour maps, the Atlas of the World's Languages is the definitive reference resource for every linguistic and reference library.

Praise for the first edition:

‘Routledge’s monolithic new Atlas of the World’s Languages provides an unprecedented account of the linguistic composition of the world…So large a contribution is the atlas that I predict it will stimulate its own cottage industry of geographical linguistic research’ - Nature

‘This atlas’s extraordinary attention to detail is astonishing’ - The Economist

`This is a monumental production and provides a definitive analysis of the known languages of the world. The publishers, the editors and the authors of individual sections deserve the warmest congratulations on producing a scholarly work of reference of primary importance for anyone concerned with the study of contemporary languages.' - The Year in Reference

Before the first appearance of the Atlas of the World's Languages in 1993, all the world's languages had never been accurately and completely mapped. The Atlas depicts the location of every known living language, including languages on the point of extinction.

This fully revised edition of the Atlas offers:

• up-to-date research, some from fieldwork in early 2006
  
• a general linguistic history of each section
  
• an overview of the genetic relations of the languages in each section
  
• statistical and sociolinguistic information
  
• a large number of new or completely updated maps
  
• further reading and a bibliography for each section
  
• a cross-referenced language index of over 6,000 languages

It is divided into 10 sections, each edited by a leading authority in its field:

1. North America (Lyle Campbell, Victor Golla, Marianne Mithun, Mauricio Mixco, Ives Goddard)
   
2. Meso-America (Terrence Kaufman)
   
3. South America (Terrence Kaufman)
   
4. Australasia & the Pacific (Darrell Tryon)
   
5. East and South East Asia (David Bradley)
   
6. Southern Asia (R.E.Asher)
   
7. Northern Asia & Eastern Europe (Bernard Comrie)
   
8. Western Europe (Lachlan Mackenzie)
   
9. Middle East & North Africa (A.K. Irvine)
   
10. Sub-Saharan Africa (Benji Wald)