What Language is by Of Linguistics John Mcwhorter

What Language is by Of Linguistics John Mcwhorter

A love letter to languages, celebrating their curiosities and smashing assumptions about correct grammar

An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Is offers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. from vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, and 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 Is explains how languages across the globe (the Queen's English and Suriname creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place--from Persia to the languages of Sri Lanka--to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.

John McWhorter is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. His specialty is pidgin and creole languages, about which he has written two academic books. He is the author of Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a Pure Standard English, and the best-selling Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. McWhorter has been interviewed in The New York Times, Newsweek and other periodicals and he has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including Dateline NBC, The Today Show and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. He lives in Oakland, California.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781592406258
ISBN 10	1592406254
Title	What Language is
Author	Of Linguistics John Mcwhorter
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Gotham Books
Year published	2011-08-04
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.