A general introduction to languages and linguistics, synchronic and diachronic--informative and entertaining in just the right proportions. Writing in a conversational style, Cox covers all the topics one would expect to find in an introductory textbook--language families, historical perspective, the formation of dialects and creoles, phonetics and phonology, morphology and syntax, writing systems--briefly sketching out the basic concepts of linguistics, and then filling most of each chapter with a colorful assortment of illustrations, facts, and anecdotes related to languages from all over the world. She thus exposes her readers to a great variety of experiments, and encourages them to learn languages. (appendix, glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)
