Masica 1991; Mithun 1999), others adopting a more geographic approach (Adelaar 2004;
Dixon and Aikhenvald, eds. 1999).
Examples
Adelaar, W. 2004. Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dixon, R. 1980. The Languages of Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dixon, R; and Aikhenvald, A. 1999. The Amazonian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Holm, J. 1988. Pidgins and Creoles, Volume I: Theory and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Holm, J. 1989. Pidgins and Creoles, Volume II: Reference Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
MacAualy, D, ed. 1992. The Celtic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Masica, C. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mithun, M. 1999. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Posner, R. 1996. The Romance Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shibatani, C. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Routledge Descriptive Grammars: This series originated as a series of book-length
grammars oriented toward a questionnaire constructed by linguistic typologists (Comrie
and Smith 1977). The aim was to stimulate linguists to provide comprehensive
descriptions of languages that would be useful in developing theories of the relationship
among the structural features of languages. Originally initiated as the Lingua Descriptive
Series, the series was ultimately incorporated into Routledge Publications’ holdings in
language and linguistics. The descriptive grammars are still produced, although they are
not listed as a series on the publisher’s website. Generally, the series has favored national
languages and languages of large national minorities in one or more countries (e.g.
Kashmiri: Wali and Koul, 1997; Punjabi: Bhatia 1993) Individual grammars no longer
explicitly orient toward the original questionnaire, although the typological function of
the series is still primary. Introductory chapters of these volumes typically give
population figures for the language(s), though these typically do not have sources cited,
and it is difficult to assess their currency and accuracy.
Examples
Bhatia, T. 1993. Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Matthews, S; and Yip, M. 1994. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Sridhar, S. 1991. Kannada Grammar. London: Routledge.
Wali, K; and Koul, O. 1997. Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Languages of the World/Materials (LINCOM Descriptive Grammar Series): This series
was started in the late 1980s by LINCOM Europa, an academic publisher specializing in
small runs of books with an emphasis on language materials, including texts, dictionaries,
technical terminology references, etc. The descriptive series was conceived along lines
similar to those of the Routledge Descriptive Grammars, but with smaller, less expensive
volumes. Hence, most of the grammars in this series are under 100 pages in length, and
are paper bound. They are generally prepared to a high professional standard, and some
appear to be the only definitive references on particular languages (e.g. Cain and Gair
2000). Titles often focus on under-described languages and minority communities (e.g.
Tenser 2005). There are several hundred listed titles in the series (numbered 1 through
452, not all numbers being used), making this possibly the largest descriptive grammar
series available. Again it is typical to find population sizes for languages in the
introductory sections of the grammars, without any cited sources, so currency and
accuracy of the information is uncertain.
Examples
Cain, B; and Gair. J. 2000. Divehi (Maldivian). Languages of the World/Materials 63. Munich:
Lincom Europa.
Gair. J; and Paolillo, J. 1997. Sinhala. Languages of the World/Materials 34. Munich: Lincom
Europa.
Tenser, A. 2005. Lithuanian Romani. Languages of the World/Materials 452. Munich: Lincom
Europa.
In addition to the works in each of these series, there are numerous potentially relevant
academic linguistic publications not in any particular series. Those that are more useful to
the goals of identifying and/or verifying language statistics are generally ones covering a
geographic region or language area, e.g. Heine and Nurse eds. (2000) for Africa,
Romaine ed. (1991) for Australia. Most of the available linguistic description, however,
either focuses on grammatical and historical description (e.g. Edmondson and Solnit
1997 for the Kadai sub-family of Southeast Asian languages), or on local interactional
patterns involving one or more languages (e.g. Auer, ed. 1998; Errington 1998; Kulick
1992; Milroy and Myusken, eds. 1995). While such works can be generally quite
illuminating about the circumstances around particular languages, they share with the
tend to report little information about the populations observed or described. Hence,
linguistic academic scholarship makes a limited contribution to knowledge about
language statistics.
2.3.3. Scholarship on endangered languages
Scholarship on endangered languages differs from other types of academic linguistic
scholarship in that, by nature, it has to be concerned with the populations of speakers
described. A small number of publications in this area, notably Robins and Uhlenbeck
(1991) and Wurm (2001), strive to be comprehensive, in that they try to cover all
geographic areas of the world. As their focus is on languages that are endangered, the
populations of all of the reported groups in this set of publications tend to be small.
Strictly speaking it is not population size alone which is determinative of language
endangerment, but the proportion of young people in the community of speakers that is
learning the community language, as opposed to some outside-group language.
Nonetheless this is more the case for small languages than for larger languages. A
selection of these publications is described below.
Hale, K; Krauss, M; Watahomigie, L; Yamamoto, A; Craig, C; Jeanne, L; and England,
N. 1992. Endangered languages.
Language, 68.1: 1-42.
This reference refers to a collection of short articles published as a single piece in
the Journal Language, the primary organ of communication of the Linguistic
Society of America. The authors are field linguists writing to raise consciousness
among members of the field regarding the loss of linguistic diversity, at the