num_pages: 327
description: There can be few subjects of such widespread interest and fascination to anyone who reads as the strange ways of languages. In this wonderfully entertaining and fascinating book, John McWhorter shares his expertise as a linguist to introduce us to 'the natural history of language': to its histories, its ecologies, its politics and its geographies. Among other fascinating oddities we encounter Russenorsk, a creole of Russian and Norwegian once spoken by arctic traders, the way in which Yiddish - at heart a dialect of German - has been influenced by the grammar of Polish and an Australian Aboriginal language which only has three verbs. Along the way we learn how English absorbed French at two stages of its history, giving us the Norman French 'warranty' and the standard French 'guarantee', that Japanese has been infused with Chines vocabulary at three distinct periods, and why Danish, Norwegian and Swedish can be regarded as three dialects of Scandinavian. Witty, brilliant and authoritative, this book is a must for anyone who is interested in language, as sheerly enjoyable as non-fiction gets. The Power of Babel is a wonderful guided tour of language and languages, as sharp and thought-provoking as Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct and as entertaining as Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue.
language: English
title: The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
titlecomplete: The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
genres: Sociology, History, Psychology, Anthropology, Science, Education, Cultural, Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 2926
publisher: William Heinemann