Waterstones Lingo
766 ratings
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: Welcome to Europe as you've never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects. Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour of the continent, from Proto-Indo-European (the common ancestor of most European languages) to the rise and rise of English, via the complexities of Welsh plurals and Czech pronunciation. Along the way we learn why Esperanto will never catch on, how the language of William the Conqueror lives on in the Channel Islands and why Finnish is the easiest European language. Surprising, witty and full of extraordinary facts, this book will change the way you think about the languages around you. Polyglot Gaston Dorren might even persuade you that English is like Chinese. Waterstones Lingo - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9781781254172
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9781781254172
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Author: Afterbrunel
Rating: 5
Review: If you're at all interested in languages and why they are as they are, this is an entertaining read. It's not a primer in how to speak them, but it is a comparative study of European languages, and how they developed. The book is eminently readable without that detracting from the scholarship involved in wirting it.
Author: Magherablade
Rating: 3
Review: A bit disappointing.As a real enthusiast for language, and someone with some familiarity with a number of languages from different families I found 'Linogo' fun, but a bit superficial. Lots of nice, sometimes interesting ideas, but the underpinnings to justify the assertions seemed to be missing and sometimes what he said just didn't resonate with my own experience. I was also surprised to find some phenomena presented as if they were one-offs when the same phenomenon can be seen elsewhere and it would have been nice to see this sort of thing explored. So, a book to which I will turn from time to time on my Kindlle, but not top of my list when it comes to finding out more about how language works.
