This innovative introduction outlines the structure and distribution of the world’s languages, charting their evolution over the past 200,000 years. Balances

This bold and accessible study of human languages and communication explores issues which are at the forefront of today's globalized society. The human species

A sweeping account of the global rise of English and the high-stakes politics of languageSpoken by a quarter of the world's population, English is today's lingu

The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and ma

Born as a Germanic tongue with the arrival in Britain of the Anglo-Saxons in the early medieval period, heavily influenced by Norman French from the 11th centur