This encyclopedia, treating language as a societally oriented discipline, is a union of knowledge in the domain of formal description of the language system, in the domain of language use in communication as well as in connected domains, with discussion of issues ranging from anthropological to social and political questions. Moreover it constitutes a unique knowledge repository in 'non-central' fields of linguistic research, such as 'exotic' languages and cultures; of important problems of language use and non-linguistic communication; and of historical facts about language and linguistics, whilst properly taking into account non-English works as well.