Acknowledgments ix
Prologue xv
A Note on the Presentation of Linguistic Material xx
Part I The Library of Babel 1
1 Warramurrungunji's Children 5
2 Four Millennia to Tune In 24
Part II A Great Feast of Languages 45
3 A Galapagos of Tongues 49
4 Your Mind in Mine: Social Cognition in Grammar 69
Part III Faint Tracks in an Ancient Wordscape: Languages and Deep World History 81
5 Sprung from Some Common Source 85
6 Travels in the Logosphere: Hooking Ancient Words onto Ancient Worlds 105
7 Keys to Decipherment: How Living Languages Can Unlock Forgotten Scripts 129
Part IV Ratchetting Each Other Up: The Coevolution of Language, Culture, and Thought 155
8 Trellises of the Mind: How Language Trains Thought 159
9 What Verse and Verbal Art Can Weave 182
Part V Listening While We Can 205
10 Renewing the Word 207
Epilogue: Sitting in the Dust, Standing in the Sky 229
Notes 232
References 249
Index of Languages and Language Families 274
Index 280

The next century will see more than half of the world's 6,000languages become extinct, and most of these will disappear withoutbeing adequately recorded. Written by one of the leading figures inlanguage documentation, this fascinating book explores whathumanity stands to lose as a result.
* Explores the unique philosophy, knowledge, and culturalassumptions of languages, and their impact on our collectiveintellectual heritage
* Questions why such linguistic diversity exists in the firstplace, and how can we can best respond to the challenge ofrecording and documenting these fragile oral traditions while theyare still with us
* Written by one of the leading figures in languagedocumentation, and draws on a wealth of vivid examples from his ownfield experience
* Brings conceptual issues vividly to life by weaving inportraits of individual 'last speakers' and anecdotesabout linguists and their discoveries