Cornell's bibliographer actually bought his own copy. Atlas Linguarum Europa is a truly monumental publication, still in progress, that is a result of a large-scale international cooperation and a common effort of the linguists of all European countries. Nearly twenty years of preparatory work produced a linguistic atlas of a new type. It can be defined as an interpretive atlas of the fourth generation. Fourth generation atlas is not only supranational but also interlingual.
Interpretive atlas goes beyond presenting raw data and is a methodological criterion as well.
ALE represents a necessary development out of previously published or previously conceived nationaland language group atlases as well as a necessary development from raw data to interpretive atlases. The area covered by ALE extends as far east as the Ural mountains and as far south as the northern side of the Caucasian chain. It is the area most used by geographers for the delineation of Europe. ALE can have only geographical boarders for the continuum of dialects often crosses the political frontiers. ALE represents an innovation of considerable significance.