John C. Maher explains why societies everywhere have become more multilingual, despite the disappearance of hundreds of the world languages. He considers our no

The languages of the world can be seen and heard in cities and towns, forests and isolated settlements, as well as on the internet and in international organiza

In this Very Short Introduction, John Edwards offers the most up-to-date brief overview available of sociolinguistics, with side trips into the sociology of lan

This book offers an introduction to the many facets of multilingualism in a changing world. It begins with an overview of the multiplicity of human languages an

How many languages are there? What differentiates one language from another? Are new languages still being discovered? Why are so many languages disappearing? T