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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

WHAT LANGUAGE IS
By: John McWhorter

And What It Isn?t and What It Could Be

Gotham
August 2011
On Sale: August 4, 2011
240 pages
ISBN: 1592406254
EAN: 9781592406258
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction

New York Times bestselling 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 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, 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 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.

Media Buzz

Talk of the Nation - August 4, 2011