This second edition of The Concise Compendium of the World's Languages has been completely revised to provide up-to-date and accurate descriptions of a wide cross-section of natural-language systems. All cultural and historical notes as well as statistical data for each language have been checked, updated and in many cases expanded.

'If you need to know whether a language has gender, or marks definiteness, its [the book's] uniform structure will lead you to the answer instantly.' - Geoffrey S. Nathan, Department of English, Wayne State University

'This is a curious, but entertaining book [...] It's based on an even more curious book, the first edition, which was put together by George Campbell: "Campbell, who was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records during the 1980s as one of the world's greatest living linguists, could speak and write fluently in at least 44 languages and had a working knowledge of about 20 others." (LA Times Obituary, Dec. 21, 2004)' - Geoffrey S. Nathan, Department of English, Wayne State University