The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language Paperback - 2003
by John McWhorter
There are approximately 6,000 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, a noted linguistics professor argues that language is a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment.
First line
From the rear cover
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.
Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.
Details
- Title The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
- Author John McWhorter
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Softcover Editio
- Pages 352
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Harper Perennial, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, U.S.A.
- Date 2003-01-07
- Illustrated Yes
- Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
- ISBN 9780060520854 / 006052085X
- Weight 0.58 lbs (0.26 kg)
- Dimensions 8.02 x 5.3 x 0.9 in (20.37 x 13.46 x 2.29 cm)
- Library of Congress subjects Language and languages - Origin, Historical linguistics
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002034592
- Dewey Decimal Code 417.7
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