Language Isolates

Language Isolates explores this fascinating group of languages that surprisingly comprise a third of the world’s languages. Individual chapters written by experts on these languages examine the world's major language isolates by geographic regions, with up-to-date descriptions of many, including previously unrecorded language isolates. Each language isolate represents a unique lineage and a unique window on what is possible in human language, making this an essential volume for anyone interested in understanding the diversity of languages and the very nature of human language. Language Isolates is key reading for professionals and students in linguistics and anthropology.

List of FiguresList of MapsList of TablesList of Contributors Introduction (Lyle Campbell) Chapter 1 Language Isolates and their history (Lyle Campbell)Chapter 2 Ancient Near Eastern and European isolates (Piotr Michalowski)Chapter 3 Basque and the reconstruction of isolated languages (Joseba A. Lakarra) Chapter 4 Ainu (Thomas Dougherty) Chapter 5 Burushaski (Alexander D. Smith) Chapter 6 Other isolated languages of Asia (Stefan Georg) Chapter 7 African language isolates (Roger Blench) Chapter 8 Language isolates of North America (Marianne Mithun) Chapter 9 Language isolates of Mesoamerica and Northern Mexico (Raina Heaton) Chapter 10 Language isolates in South America (Frank Seifart and Harald Hammarström)Chapter 11 Language isolates in the New Guinea region (Harald Hammarström) Chapter 12 Language isolates of Australia (Claire Bowern)Chapter 13 Endangerment of language isolates (Eve Okura) ReferencesIndex

Lyle Campbell is a linguist,Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawai‘i Manoa. He has alsoheld joint appointments in Anthropology, Latin American Studies, Linguistics, and Spanish.