Das Buch hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Bei meinen bescheidenen Vorkenntnissen des Themas (Grammatik) war es schwer zu lesen. Auch wenn ich grosse Teile nicht verstanden habe, war "genug Rest" vorhanden, der mir eine neue Sicht über die Sprachen, ihre Sprecher, ihre Kultur und die damit einher gehenden Zusammenhänge und erschlossen hat. ( )

In the world, 6417 languages are in use, 273 among them have more than one million speakers (accounting for 90 % of mankind), only 12 of them have more than 100 million speakers, six of them are called global languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, French and German (all European, wink wink Jared Diamond). It is always a good sign if having finished a book, I want to read on, to learn more. Haarmann's topic is vast indeed: A interdisciplinary and global history of languages. In ten chapters, Haarmann provides a good survey of the evolution and distribution of languages and mechanism of change. The first five chapters present the origin and geographic evolution of languages, interweaving linguistics, genetics, archeology and geology. Chapter six surveys the Indo-European languages (with an emphasis on Latin), chapter seven the other language families. Chapters eight (technology, lettering systems), nine (pidgins) and ten (globalization) present an introduction to special issues. I wish the author had elaborated more on the influence of media and the internet (The use of the old-fashioned word Schreibcomputer (as if a computer were less than a universal machine) indicates a (chosen?) lack of familiarity.). Another topic I find underdeveloped is the choice of (e.g. company) language in a multilingual setting. Overall, a well-written introduction recommended for German speakers. ( )