The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment.
Read more
Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babeldraws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.
Liked The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue Shares linguistics, language, nonfiction -
The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention Shares linguistics, language, nonfiction -
Bastard Tongues: A Trailblazing Linguist Finds Clues to Our Common Humanity in the World's Lowliest Languages Shares linguistics, language, nonfiction -
The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language Shares linguistics, language, nonfiction
“People who read The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language tend to reach for these next.”
-
The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park
-
Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World
-
In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language
-
The Stories of English
