What Language Is : And What It Isnt and What It Could Be

English

ISBN: 1592406254

EAN: 9781592406258

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines / Etymology

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

Release Date: 08/10/2011

Age Range: 18-null

Synopsis: New York Timesbestselling author and renowned linguist, John McWhorter, explores the complicated and fascinating world of languages. From Standard English to Black English; obscure tongues only spoken by a few thousand people in the world to the big ones like Mandarin - What Language Is celebrates the history and curiosities of languages around the world and smashes our assumptions about correct grammar. An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Isoffers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. From vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, with copious revelations about the hodgepodge nature of English, John McWhorter shows readers how to see and hear languages as a linguist does. Packed with Big Ideas about language alongside wonderful trivia, What Language Isexplains how languages across the globe (the Queens English and Surinam creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter also takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place-from Persian to the languages of Sri Lanka- to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.

Excerpt: Unknown Property Excerpt

What Language Is : And What It Isnt and What It Could Be

Illustrated: Yes

Format: Hardcover

Height: 0.98 inches

Width: 5.83 inches

Length: 8.55 inches

Weight: 14.11 oz

Pages: 240