Covering the political, social and historical background of each language, "Dictionary of Languages" offers a unique insight into human culture and communication. Every language with official status is included, as well as all those that have a written literature and 175 `minor` languages with special historical or anthropological interest. We see how, with the rapidly increasing uniformity of our culture as media`s influence spreads, more languages have become extinct or are under threat of extinction. The text is highlighted by maps and charts of scripts, while proverbs, anecdotes and quotations reveal the features that make a language unique.