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Also by John McWhorter:

The Language Hoax, May 2014
Hardcover
What Language Is, August 2011
Hardcover
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, November 2008
Hardcover
All about the Beat, June 2008
Hardcover
Winning the Race, January 2007
Paperback
Winning the Race, December 2005
Hardcover
The Power of Babel, March 2003
Trade Size (reprint)
The Power of Babel, January 2003
Paperback

The Power of Babel
John McWhorter

A natural history of language

Aspect
March 2003
On Sale: March 6, 2003
320 pages
ISBN: 0099435241
EAN: 9780099435242
Trade Size (reprint)
Add to Wish List

Non-Fiction

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. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter 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.

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