Call number
Publication
New York : Perennial, 2003, c2001.
Pages
328
Description
There are approximately 6000 languages on earth today, the descendants 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 irreverent romp through territory too often claimed by stodgy grammarians, 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 popularperception, 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 examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, creoles, patois 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 in 100 years. The first book written for the layperson about the natural history of language, Power of Babel is a dazzling tour de force that will leave readers anything but speechless.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2001
Physical description
328 p.; 8 inches
ISBN
006052085X / 9780060520854
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User reviews
LibraryThing member timspalding
An exceptional book. It changed my understanding of linguistics completely (every classics grad student picks up a bit, but it's often quite outdated). The discussion of creoles was particularly engaging. McWhorter is a gem.
LibraryThing member narikui
I thought this book was great! It provides an entertaining guide through some of linguistics most interesting terrotories (no CFGs here!). I am particularly interested in how languages change and this book provided many examples of that process. The only negative was that sometimes there were too
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many examples --- which can detract from getting the general picture. Show Less
LibraryThing member keristars
The Power of Babel is pretty much what it says (or implies) on the cover: it's a book about how languages grew to the diversity they have today. It discusses various elements of language in general and shows how these elements work with actual languages (or dialects, or pidgins, or creoles), as
For the most part, having had a few introductory/basic linguistics classes as well as having had a classical Greek instructor who kept inserting evolutionary linguistics into our lessons, most of the concepts were familiar to me, but I learned a lot from the examples and now feel that I have a much broader and more thorough understanding of the history of language. McWhorter is very easy to understand; he states in the introduction that he tried to keep the non-linguists in mind when writing, and so mostly avoids things like IPA or highly technical terms without explanation.
It's super clear from the reading that McWhorter finds a kind of joy in studying the diversity of language, and I think that anyone who reads the book will be able to appreciate it, if not discover their own joy/fascination. But, then, I may be biased, due to my own predisposition towards being fascinated by language diversity and beauty.
Although when discussing creoles, pidgins, dialects, and various elements of language (such as articles, gender markers, or different kinds of inflections) McWhorter is careful to use examples from all over the world, rather than limiting them to any particular region or type of language, I found that the book as a whole is most suitable for Americans and maybe Canadians. He includes a lot of pop culture references that I am only vaguely familiar with, but which I know to be part of the American cultural knowledge - I suspect that people from other English-speaking countries might find these references flying over their heads. That said, most of the references aren't strictly necessary for understanding, but rather provide further context for a concept, or an analogy from a different field.
The primary negative to the book goes along with McWhorter's references to pop culture. He uses a friendly, familiar voice that often includes asides or digressions either in the main text or included as a footnote. While some of these are interesting notes about the topic at hand, most of them are personal comments or observations that would have done better to be left out. I suppose that other people might find them to be a sort of ...softening or something to keep the book from being too academic.
On the whole, I do recommend The Power of Babel to anyone who has a passing interest in how languages have developed to where they are today. It was interesting all the way through, without any dull spots, and was easy to read. Plus, it's fairly short - only 300 pages in the paperback edition I have.
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well as how they change or morph as languages themselves change.For the most part, having had a few introductory/basic linguistics classes as well as having had a classical Greek instructor who kept inserting evolutionary linguistics into our lessons, most of the concepts were familiar to me, but I learned a lot from the examples and now feel that I have a much broader and more thorough understanding of the history of language. McWhorter is very easy to understand; he states in the introduction that he tried to keep the non-linguists in mind when writing, and so mostly avoids things like IPA or highly technical terms without explanation.
It's super clear from the reading that McWhorter finds a kind of joy in studying the diversity of language, and I think that anyone who reads the book will be able to appreciate it, if not discover their own joy/fascination. But, then, I may be biased, due to my own predisposition towards being fascinated by language diversity and beauty.
Although when discussing creoles, pidgins, dialects, and various elements of language (such as articles, gender markers, or different kinds of inflections) McWhorter is careful to use examples from all over the world, rather than limiting them to any particular region or type of language, I found that the book as a whole is most suitable for Americans and maybe Canadians. He includes a lot of pop culture references that I am only vaguely familiar with, but which I know to be part of the American cultural knowledge - I suspect that people from other English-speaking countries might find these references flying over their heads. That said, most of the references aren't strictly necessary for understanding, but rather provide further context for a concept, or an analogy from a different field.
The primary negative to the book goes along with McWhorter's references to pop culture. He uses a friendly, familiar voice that often includes asides or digressions either in the main text or included as a footnote. While some of these are interesting notes about the topic at hand, most of them are personal comments or observations that would have done better to be left out. I suppose that other people might find them to be a sort of ...softening or something to keep the book from being too academic.
On the whole, I do recommend The Power of Babel to anyone who has a passing interest in how languages have developed to where they are today. It was interesting all the way through, without any dull spots, and was easy to read. Plus, it's fairly short - only 300 pages in the paperback edition I have.
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LibraryThing member Wombat
This is another fun language book by McWhorter. This volume is organized around looking at all the ways that languages change and evolve over time. McWhorter describes a rich variety of changes that languages and dialects can undergo. We've all heard and read about how languages can change in
Complex language features---such as inflection or the use of tone---come and go over time, and McWhorter provides some fascinating insights into how and why this type of change happens. He also describes a variety of other complexities that arise in the world's languages, but are generally unfamiliar to folks like me who are mostly only familiar with Romance or Indo-European languages.
There is a large (and interesting) section of the book devoted to pidgins and creoles. Creoles are essentially new languages that spring into being when people who use a much simpler pidgin are compelled to rely almost exclusively on that pidgin for communication of a long period of time. The resulting Creole is a true language with a grammar and vocabulary that provide sufficient expressiveness for the full range of human communications. McWhorter argues that since Creoles are less evolved, the common features across creole languages are probably a good indication of the types of features that would have been present in the earliest human language.
Another interesting aspect of the book was the contrasting of more isolated, regional languages and more wide-spread languages such as English, Hindi, Chinese, or Arabic. The truly bizarre and hard to grasp linguistic complexities are much more likely to be found in the more isolated languages, where most if not all speakers learn the language natively as children. Once a language gets big enough that many people are learning it as a second language, those rough edges get softened over time. Thus, for example, Swahili, a language adopted by many adults as a second language, is generally considered the "easiest" of the Bantu languages.
There are many other interesting aspects of language evolution in this book. How do languages change when the mix with each other, whether due to migration, trade, or conquest? What happens when a language starts getting written down? How do languages change as they die out? Do we have any hope of reconstructing the original human language?
The book is full of interesting examples English and other languages readers may know, such as French, German, and Russian, and from languages readers are unlikely to have heard of, such as Ngan'gityemerri, an Aborigine language from northern Australia. And McWhorter tells his story with enthusiasm and a pleasant sprinkling of personal anecdotes and asides, both relevant (such as his personal experience grappling with different German dialects) and merely entertaining (such as his musings on the quality of art in turn-of-the-century comic strips).
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pronunciation over time, and how word meanings can evolve. But that is only the start of McWhorter's entertaining and informative tour through the evolution of language. Complex language features---such as inflection or the use of tone---come and go over time, and McWhorter provides some fascinating insights into how and why this type of change happens. He also describes a variety of other complexities that arise in the world's languages, but are generally unfamiliar to folks like me who are mostly only familiar with Romance or Indo-European languages.
There is a large (and interesting) section of the book devoted to pidgins and creoles. Creoles are essentially new languages that spring into being when people who use a much simpler pidgin are compelled to rely almost exclusively on that pidgin for communication of a long period of time. The resulting Creole is a true language with a grammar and vocabulary that provide sufficient expressiveness for the full range of human communications. McWhorter argues that since Creoles are less evolved, the common features across creole languages are probably a good indication of the types of features that would have been present in the earliest human language.
Another interesting aspect of the book was the contrasting of more isolated, regional languages and more wide-spread languages such as English, Hindi, Chinese, or Arabic. The truly bizarre and hard to grasp linguistic complexities are much more likely to be found in the more isolated languages, where most if not all speakers learn the language natively as children. Once a language gets big enough that many people are learning it as a second language, those rough edges get softened over time. Thus, for example, Swahili, a language adopted by many adults as a second language, is generally considered the "easiest" of the Bantu languages.
There are many other interesting aspects of language evolution in this book. How do languages change when the mix with each other, whether due to migration, trade, or conquest? What happens when a language starts getting written down? How do languages change as they die out? Do we have any hope of reconstructing the original human language?
The book is full of interesting examples English and other languages readers may know, such as French, German, and Russian, and from languages readers are unlikely to have heard of, such as Ngan'gityemerri, an Aborigine language from northern Australia. And McWhorter tells his story with enthusiasm and a pleasant sprinkling of personal anecdotes and asides, both relevant (such as his personal experience grappling with different German dialects) and merely entertaining (such as his musings on the quality of art in turn-of-the-century comic strips).
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LibraryThing member danbarrett
God, this book is amazing. It made me into more of a linguophile than I already was. Expect to read this book with your mouth gaping, and then to feel the urgent need to study several rare languages.
LibraryThing member MartinBodek
Reading this mind-blower created four significant changes in my brain: 1) It changed my approach to learning languages, as I was previously stuck trying to learn them through the rules of my own. 2) It caused me to understand why certain cultures speak the language of another culture in the same
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curious ways. 3) It gave me clarity on the exceptions in the English language. 4) It shoved a helluva pile of information in which won't leave very soon. Penultimately satisfying was his sense of humor, which he brandishes via superfun and apropos pop-culture references which mostly did not go over my head. Most satisfying of all was his origin story, which allows the reader to crystally understand the writer's passion, and appreciate his works in a most emphatic manner. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The power of Babel. A natural history of language is an extended introduction to historical linguistics, particularly addressing the phenomenon on language change. The main idea proposed in the book is frightfully simple: there is no such thing as "a language", i.e. there is so much variation and
Despite the very simple main idea of the book, The power of Babel. A natural history of language is hard to read, and, actually, rather boring. The author really goes over-board in giving examples. It seems the author's intention in writing the book was to include examples from as many languages as possible. Other authors, notably Jean Aitchinson's Language Change: Progress or Decay, explain the theory giving a limited number of examples. Thus, McWhorter's book includes all classic examples, such as Tok Pisin, in addition to a very large selection of other languages, pidgins, creoles and dialects.
The author repeatedly draws comparisons between the evolution of languages and evolution in the natural world, including concepts such as fossilization, survival and language death. Particularly the last chapter, about language death, attempts to preserve and document languages and the call to make efforts to rescue languages, closely resembles David Crystal's book Language Death.
McWhorter's fascination with the multitude of languages and the chaos in development is best expressed through the titles of his chapters, as they are, for instance, "The First Language Morphs into Six Thousand New Ones" (Chapter 1), "The Six Thousand Languages Develop into Clusters of Sublanguages" (Chapter 2), "The Thousands of Dialects Mix with One Another" (Chapter 3) and "The Thousands of Dialects of Thousands of Languages All Develop Far Beyond the Call of Duty" (Chapter 5).
Readers who share a fascination for language variety may enjoy the multiple upon multiple examples from many well-known and many exotic languages. However, for the reader interested in a good introduction into the subject, it may be advisable to read a book that is clear, without offering an over-kill of examples. There any many similar books about this subject available.
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language change going on at the same time, that it is hard to pin-point any language in a "finished" or fully-realized state.Despite the very simple main idea of the book, The power of Babel. A natural history of language is hard to read, and, actually, rather boring. The author really goes over-board in giving examples. It seems the author's intention in writing the book was to include examples from as many languages as possible. Other authors, notably Jean Aitchinson's Language Change: Progress or Decay, explain the theory giving a limited number of examples. Thus, McWhorter's book includes all classic examples, such as Tok Pisin, in addition to a very large selection of other languages, pidgins, creoles and dialects.
The author repeatedly draws comparisons between the evolution of languages and evolution in the natural world, including concepts such as fossilization, survival and language death. Particularly the last chapter, about language death, attempts to preserve and document languages and the call to make efforts to rescue languages, closely resembles David Crystal's book Language Death.
McWhorter's fascination with the multitude of languages and the chaos in development is best expressed through the titles of his chapters, as they are, for instance, "The First Language Morphs into Six Thousand New Ones" (Chapter 1), "The Six Thousand Languages Develop into Clusters of Sublanguages" (Chapter 2), "The Thousands of Dialects Mix with One Another" (Chapter 3) and "The Thousands of Dialects of Thousands of Languages All Develop Far Beyond the Call of Duty" (Chapter 5).
Readers who share a fascination for language variety may enjoy the multiple upon multiple examples from many well-known and many exotic languages. However, for the reader interested in a good introduction into the subject, it may be advisable to read a book that is clear, without offering an over-kill of examples. There any many similar books about this subject available.
Show Less
LibraryThing member devilish2
This to me read like a lecturer in linguistics has written a book based on his lectures for a term to slightly backward students.
The subject matter is absolutely fascinating, but he tends to ram home the point he's making three times over and then when the next lecture (chapter) begins, reiterates
So if you have the stamina to cope with his repetitions, his sense of humour is lovely and comes across really well on the page (ad breaks during the lectures!).
I got about two thirds of the way through this and then finally couldn't cope with constantly being treated like an imbecile, so I moved on. Maybe I should have shown more patience...
The subject matter is absolutely fascinating, but he tends to ram home the point he's making three times over and then when the next lecture (chapter) begins, reiterates
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major points from previous lectures (chapters). I read this reasonably fast and so didn't require constant reminders of what had gone before (I got it the first time usually, thank you).So if you have the stamina to cope with his repetitions, his sense of humour is lovely and comes across really well on the page (ad breaks during the lectures!).
I got about two thirds of the way through this and then finally couldn't cope with constantly being treated like an imbecile, so I moved on. Maybe I should have shown more patience...
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LibraryThing member Georg.Miggel
I have rarely been that delighted and flattered by a book. McWorther points out that there is only a fluent and gradual distinction between different languages on the one hand and different dialects on the other hand. For instance he proves that the ...more I have rarely been that delighted and
Q: What is the different between an American/British work of non-fiction and a European one?
A: For the latter you don’t need to know all the current TV shows. Have you ever noticed how often Anglo-Americans use metaphors and parallels from their daily TV-program? Who or what the hell is „Honeymooners“, „Dyck van Dyke“, „The Simpsons“ „East-Enders“, „ER“ or some guy called Lettermann? I don’t know and I am sure I don’t want to know either. First: This makes the books less readable for foreigners and later generations. But second (and worse): It’s a sign for the Anglo-American arrogance and self-centered attitude. They really think their TV-program is shown (and watched) all over the world. No European writer would think that their TV-program was known outside their country (which is mostly correct, or what’s the most successful TV-show in a) France, b) Austria and c) Bosnia-Herzegowina? Thought so.)
The book is most rewarding if you know the basics of French, Latin and/or German because McWorther mostly discusses the development of languages and their relationship to the old and current English on the base of these languages. Less interesting are his linguistic examples from other, mostly exotic tongues and dialects. In my opinion it is not really striking that in Xxotlepolte (spoken only in my imagination) the plural of q’antyiizzofd isn’t q’antyiizzofdü but q’antyiizzofdä.
What I liked is his “tolerant” approach. He shows that there is no “bad” and “good” English but that it’s only kind of coincidence that the codified (written) English appears as the only “right” (and good) English. For instance he proves that the prohibition of the double negation (“You ain’t seen nothing yet”) has nothing to do with logic (see page 228) but only with an illogical parallel to Latin. He points out that the double negation doesn’t necessarily lead to an affirmative, but can also lead to an emphatic negation. In this connection I found one of his (rare) mistakes: To prove that double negation also exists in French he explains:
“… while the French apparently following the old dictum that “Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong” can declare that “Ce qui n’est pas clair n’est pas français” (What isn’t clear isn’t French) by actually using an “illogical” double negative twice…”
Not true. This is not a double negation but an algorithm with two negative values like “if you don’t tidy up your room you are not allowed to watch TV”.
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flattered by a book. McWorther points out that there is only a fluent and gradual distinction between different languages on the one hand and different dialects on the other hand. For instance he proves that the differences between several German dialects are much more substantial than those between Russian/Ukrainian, Spanish/Portuguese or Danish/Swedish/Norwegian. Since I speak at least four German dialects (Kölsch, Hessian, Platt and Hamburgian) in his view I can legally claim to speak at least 5 languages. Didn’t know I was that smart. Q: What is the different between an American/British work of non-fiction and a European one?
A: For the latter you don’t need to know all the current TV shows. Have you ever noticed how often Anglo-Americans use metaphors and parallels from their daily TV-program? Who or what the hell is „Honeymooners“, „Dyck van Dyke“, „The Simpsons“ „East-Enders“, „ER“ or some guy called Lettermann? I don’t know and I am sure I don’t want to know either. First: This makes the books less readable for foreigners and later generations. But second (and worse): It’s a sign for the Anglo-American arrogance and self-centered attitude. They really think their TV-program is shown (and watched) all over the world. No European writer would think that their TV-program was known outside their country (which is mostly correct, or what’s the most successful TV-show in a) France, b) Austria and c) Bosnia-Herzegowina? Thought so.)
The book is most rewarding if you know the basics of French, Latin and/or German because McWorther mostly discusses the development of languages and their relationship to the old and current English on the base of these languages. Less interesting are his linguistic examples from other, mostly exotic tongues and dialects. In my opinion it is not really striking that in Xxotlepolte (spoken only in my imagination) the plural of q’antyiizzofd isn’t q’antyiizzofdü but q’antyiizzofdä.
What I liked is his “tolerant” approach. He shows that there is no “bad” and “good” English but that it’s only kind of coincidence that the codified (written) English appears as the only “right” (and good) English. For instance he proves that the prohibition of the double negation (“You ain’t seen nothing yet”) has nothing to do with logic (see page 228) but only with an illogical parallel to Latin. He points out that the double negation doesn’t necessarily lead to an affirmative, but can also lead to an emphatic negation. In this connection I found one of his (rare) mistakes: To prove that double negation also exists in French he explains:
“… while the French apparently following the old dictum that “Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong” can declare that “Ce qui n’est pas clair n’est pas français” (What isn’t clear isn’t French) by actually using an “illogical” double negative twice…”
Not true. This is not a double negation but an algorithm with two negative values like “if you don’t tidy up your room you are not allowed to watch TV”.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RavenousReaders
In this highly accessible book McWhorter addresses topics such as the possibility of reconstructing humanity’s proto-language, the inevitability of language change and the probable diminution of the roughly 6000 languages extant today to around 500 a century from now. This is an informative and
Reviewed by: Jeff
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entertaining look at one of humanity’s essential traits.Reviewed by: Jeff
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LibraryThing member fpagan
A delightful and educational read. To pick just one gem out of hundreds, would you believe that "Good butter and good cheese is good English and good Fries" (p 99) is an actual sentence of Frisian?
LibraryThing member br77rino
Great telling of the history of language, the families, the web of it, that all leads back to the Koi San and the click languages of southern Africa.
LibraryThing member vonChillan
A fascinating survey of the myriad ways humans get to communicate with each other, not as a catalog of odd behaviors but as the evidence for a rather radical thesis: there are no dialects, all are languages (or the converse: there are no languages, all are dialects, perhaps). The
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historical-comparative method allows Whorter to bring example after example of the richness, variability and robustness of language. I don't know if professional linguists will accept the thesis or its argument, but to me was an extremely lucid and enlightneing book Show Less
LibraryThing member miketroll
Absorbing essay on the non-stop process of language development and change.
LibraryThing member LynnB
This is an interesting look at how the world went from one language to the roughly 6000 we have today. At times, it was a bit too much "in the weeds" for me, with details of wording endings or how a particular word evolved. But, the author has a wonderful sense of humour which comes through to
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banish any boredom. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jaylia3
Another great one by McWhorter. Very funny and eye-opening.
LibraryThing member jaygheiser
Excellent book: informative and a good read. My copy is heavily marked up. Finally, I found a source that explains why languages seem to be moving from the complex to the simple. It also substantiates my theory that the 'standard' languages are simpler for outsiders to learn as adults than are
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regional dialects and languages from areas with less economic/political/military clout. Show Less
LibraryThing member john257hopper
Although the subject matter of this book is one of enormous and lifelong interest to me, I had only dipped into this before now and this was my first attempt to read through the whole book. This largely didn't work for me - the chapters are too long and rambling, and poorly structured, with
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excessive use of long-winded examples. The editor should really have taken a good look at this and produced a more tightly structured book of half or two thirds the length. For this UK reader, there were also too many slightly flippant and highly irritating and unnecessary contemporary or near contemporary American cultural references that spoiled the flow of the book. Could have been a good deal better. Show Less
LibraryThing member annbury
Nice solid book on the history of language, for the non-linguist reader. Professionals may be even more put off by the fact that this is fun to read. Those who have already read a good deal about language may find more meat in Pinker or Deutscher, but this book is still worth looking at. And for
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those who are new to the topic, it is ideal. Show Less
LibraryThing member juliayoung
After having listened to McWhorter lecture (on audiocassette) on language, it was nice to have an actual book to read and see what he's talking about. I liked the fact that it wasn't a dry tome, but rather included some real life. A good book for a newcomer to the topic; I do agree that the
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chapters are long, but they're broken into 1-4 page subsections for those who can't sit and read for an extended period of time. Show Less
LibraryThing member danielbeattie
An enjoyable foray into historical linguistics written with the layperson in mind. McWhorter writes in an easy to understand language, constantly trying to show what he means through the use of examples from real life languages. Historical linguistics is a dry topic. Let's face it: it is just not
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that sexy. Most people find the endless comparisons of lists of words or bits of grammar completely boring. Though this is for the layperson this book is full of such things, so you have to be a bit of a language geek to properly appreciate this book. But you don't have to have a lot of knowledge beforehand as McWhorter does explain everything rather thoroughly. If you aren't interested in the inflections of some obscure Indian language and how it compares to the inflections of some obscure South East Asian language, then this book is not for you. But if you are into grammar and other linguistic topics then it is a delightful read. If the book had been better structured I'd given it 5 stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sandydog1
If you are a linguistics grad student, you are absolutely going to love this book. For me (strong back, weak mind) this was a heckuva lot of intellectual heavy-lifting. The only parts I really understood were the descriptions of English, French, Spanish...that's about it. Grammatical nuances of
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Bantu and Cheyenne? Not so much. My eyes glazed over. I'd give it 3 stars due to personal taste; it deserves four. Show Less