The Uralic Languages (Routledge Language Family Descriptions) (Hardcover)

by D. Abondolo (Author) "The term 'Uralic' refers to the largest language family of northern Eurasia..." (more)
Key Phrases: consonant centre, morphophonemic code, consonant sandhi, North Saami, Tundra Nenets, South Estonian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This book provides a unique survey of individual Uralic languages and sub-groupings from Finnish to Selkup and Obugrian to Samoyedic. Giving both an overview and then detailed analyses of the Uralic languages, the volume describes their history and development as well as focusing on their linguistic structure. Each chapter is similarly-structured, designed for comparative study and including phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon and sample text where available. Each includes numerous tables to support and illustrate the text and bibliographies of the major references in each language to aid further study.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 648 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 16, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041508198X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415081986
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,124,357 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but not for the impoverished scholar, January 15, 2001

By A Customer

For linguists interested in Uralic languages, this is an outstanding reference with essays written mostly by top scholars in the field--Pekka Sammallahti for Saami might be singled out in particular. Unfortunately, Routledge has priced the book staggeringly high. No scholar with just a casual interest in the field and without very deep pockets could afford it. Consult it in the library--if you can get your library to buy it. The only flaw I find with _The Uralic Languages_ is the lack of a chart setting out the traditional Uralicists' phonetic transcription system. Knowledge of this system is indispensable for reading older Uralic scholarship, and a survey like this would have been a good place to include it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great descriptions, if you study the Uralic branch., June 7, 2008

By	DomnulVJB (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Uralic Languages (Routledge Language Family Series) (Paperback)

Routledge has a great line of language family books, which are very well written, but which are intended more for advanced learners/linguists and specialists looking for those minor (but never trivial) details on a language. This book is very well written and I am happy that such a publication exists because there isn't much available on the lesser known Uralic languages. My intention was to gain a better perspective on Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian, and I was well pleased. Anyone looking into a more TECHNICAL side of these languages will be pleased. As an added note, do also look into Cambridge's material.