Catalog Search Results
Do you want to learn a new language? Mango for libraries offers over 70 world language courses expertly designed to adapt to a diverse range of learning needs, styles, and backgrounds.
You will need a State Library of Kansas eCard to sign up for Mango Languages. Then you can download the app or use your web browser to begin learning the language of your choice!
Contact your local library to learn how to get a Kansas eCard.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 31
Language
English
Description
The line between different language families is often blurred. Languages from different families that have been brought together can create a hybrid that belongs to both, and every combination happens in different ways and to varying degrees. Look at several examples of this phenomenon (which even includes English).
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 20
Language
English
Description
Journey to the South Seas to begin an investigation into Austronesian, one of the world's largest and most widespread language families. See what connects Austronesian languages to other families, as well as how they differ from European languages, and trace the way Austronesian languages have spread across far-flung locations.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 27
Language
English
Description
Like Australia, North America was home to at least 300 distinct languages before English became dominant. Professor McWhorter takes you through some of the theories linguists have regarding the relationship of various Native American languages and the origins of humans and their varieties of speech on the North American continent.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 15
Language
English
Description
The languages called Altaic are spoken across Asia, from Turkey through Mongolia and to northeastern regions of Asia. Understand why there is some debate among linguists as to whether they comprise one family or are made of three separate ones as you look at how these languages function, including nuances like a mood known as "evidentiality."
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 7
Language
English
Description
Look closer at some of the unique aspects of the Niger-Congo family, including the use of tone, and see how different languages can spring from the same original materials. Since the work of classifying languages is ongoing, you may be surprised to see how many can develop in proximity and share words but be part of different groups altogether.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 5
Language
English
Description
Shift from Indo-European to some of the most endangered languages in the world: the "click" languages, formally known as Khoisan. Spoken in southern Africa, these endangered languages share a distinctive profile, and yet likely did not all come from a single family. Explore where they may have begun and how they work.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 33
Language
English
Description
The idiosyncrasies that show up in DNA allow us to trace back to common ancestors, much like language traits allow us to chart language-family relationships. Take a look at the concept of glottochronology and see what linguistic theories have been confirmed by genetics in places like Europe, India, and Polynesia.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 13
Language
English
Description
Named for the Caucasus mountains where they originate, the Caucasian languages are actually three different families: Northwestern, Northeastern, and a Southern one that includes Georgian. Explore these grammatically complex languages to better understand how they work and how so many different varieties can spring from a relatively small area.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 28
Language
English
Description
Zoom in on some of the larger families of North America and gain valuable insight into what they can tell us about language in general. You'll get the chance to examine languages that are on the brink of extinction today, see which languages have contributed words currently used in American English, and more.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 3
Language
English
Description
Begin a deep dive into the earliest roots of Indo-European languages with a look at Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Greek, Albanian, and Celtic languages. See how Indo-European languages contradict common notions about how language works and uncover some of the mysteries that are yet to be solved.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 6
Language
English
Description
The Niger-Congo family consists of anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 different languages. While they are part of the same family, they do not adhere to an identified pattern like Indo-European. What links this immense family together? What is the essence of the Niger-Congo? What can these languages tell us about migration patterns? Explore these questions and more.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 21
Language
English
Description
The languages of Polynesia are estimated to be some of the newest languages in the world, emerging only in the last millennium. Look back to the earliest cultures of the Polynesian islands to see how the languages likely originated and were disseminated, branching into separate sub-groups like Oceanic and the three that are all spoken on the small island of Formosa.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 32
Language
English
Description
Embark on a quest that some believe may be impossible: tracing the relationships between the macro language families. See how the pursuit of evidence connecting the language families is complicated by time, accidental similarities, lost languages, and more, as you also look at several plausible theories that could offer solutions.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 17
Language
English
Description
Explore the Asian languages beyond Japanese and Korean, looking into several families along the way. See why Mandarin and Cantonese, though both considered Chinese, are a classic example of two different languages being mistaken for dialects, thanks in part to a shared writing system and cultural proximity.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 22
Language
English
Description
How do some languages end up isolated amidst other unrelated families? Look at pockets of language in Siberia, Spain, and Japan that are not related to those that surround them and better understand what the nature of language (and human migration and settlement patterns) can tell us about these unique places.
Author
Series
Language Families of the World volume 1
Language
English
Description
There are over 7,000 languages in the world and many linguists believe they likely all developed from a single source language in the distant past. Get an introduction to the concept of language families, understand how languages change over time, and discover what linguistics can teach us about our own history.
Didn't find it?
Can't find what you are looking for? Try our Materials Request Service. Submit Request