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"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. How did they all develop? What happened to the first language?".
"In this tour of territory too often claimed by stodgy grammarians, linguistics professor John McWhorter ranges across linguistic theory, geography, history, and pop culture to tell the fascinating story of how thousands of very different languages have evolved from a single, original source in a natural process similar to biological evolution.
While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, he 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. McWhorter also discusses current theories on what the first language might have been like, why dialects should not be considered "bad speech," and why most of today's languages will be extinct within one hundred years.".
"The first book written for the layperson about the natural history of language, The Power of Babel is a dazzling tour de force that will leave readers anything but speechless."--BOOK JACKET.
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Previews available in: English
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1
The power of Babel: a natural history of language
2003, Perennial
in English
- 1st Perennial ed.
006052085X 9780060520854
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2
The power of Babel: a natural history of language
2001, Times Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0716744732 9780716744733
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Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-315) and index.
"A W.H. Freeman book."
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- Created April 1, 2008
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