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

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5093694 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 648 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent, but not for the impoverished scholar
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.

Great descriptions, if you study the Uralic branch.
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.