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What Language Is (And What It Isn't And What It Could Be) (2011)

by John H. McWhorter(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1592406254 (ISBN13: 9781592406258)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Gotham

review 1: Such an interesting book! I picked it up not expecting much out of it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a lot of trivia and you definitely have to be interested in languages and how they've evolved in order to think this book was a worthwhile read, but if you fulfill those conditions I think it's definitely enjoyable. I've always been curious about linguistics and this was an easy-to-understand yet not dumbed-down look at why languages that are complicated have evolved that way while others have stayed relatively simple.
review 2: Linguistics has got to be one of the dryest subjects on earth, with all its tenses and cases and inflections. Except in the hands of John McWhorter, who addresses the subject with such enthusiasm, and with such a perky style of ... morewriting that he makes it fun. His witty asides are the spoonful of sugar, but even without them, the medicine would still go down easily enough, because he explains complex concepts clearly, a little at a time. The big concept is that languages, left alone over time, grow ever more complex. The languages of isolated peoples are not "primitive" languages, but so difficult to master that only children (who have a knack for it) can pick them up with ease. Languages become simplified when a large influx of foreign adults are forced to learn them, a process McWhorter calls the "Persian Conversion." What emerges is not "bad" language, but new language. McWhorter wants us to respect the living, breathing words that people conduct their daily lives in. The written language is not better or purer or more correct, but is a snapshot of the past. Languages are constantly changing, and trying to prevent the changes is like someone on the beach "trying to keep the shoreline dry with a towel." less

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