The Resource Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren
Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren
Resource Information
The item Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System.This item is available to borrow from 6 library branches.
Resource Information
The item Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in DC Public Library System.
This item is available to borrow from 6 library branches.
- Summary
-
- A tour of the world's twenty most-spoken languages explores the history, geography, linguistics, and cultures that have been shaped by languages and their customs
- "English is the world language, except that most of the world doesn't speak it--only one in five people does. Gaston Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world's 7.4 or so billion people in their mother tongues, you would need to know no fewer than twenty languages. He sets out to explore these top twenty world languages, which range from the familiar (French, Spanish) to the surprising (Malay, Javanese, Punjabi). [This book] whisks the reader on a delightful journey to every continent of the world, tracing how these world languages rose to greatness while others fell away, and showing how speakers today handle the foibles of their mother tongues. Whether exploring tongue-tying phonetics, complicated writing scripts, or mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs. Among many other things, Babel will teach you why modern Turks can't read books that are a mere seventy-five years old, what it means in practice for Russian and English to be relatives, and how Japanese developed separate "dialects" for men and women. Dorren lets you in on his personal trials and triumphs while studying Vietnamese, debunks ten widespread myths about Chinese characters, and discovers that Swahili became the lingua franca in a part of the world where people routinely speak three or more languages. Witty, fascinating and utterly compelling, Babel will change the way you look at and listen to the world and how it speaks."--Dust jacket
- Language
- eng
- Edition
- First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 360 pages
- Note
- Maps on end-papers
- Contents
-
- Introduction: twenty languages: half the world
- Vietnamese, 85 million: linguistic moutaineering
- Korean, 85 million: sound and sensibility
- Tamil, 90 million: a matter of life and death
- Turkish, 90 million: irreparably improved
- Javanese, 95 million: talking up, talking down
- Persian, 110 million: empire builders and construction workers
- Punjabi, 125 million: the tone is the message
- Japanese, 130 million: linguistic gender apartheid
- Swahili, 135 million: Africa's nonchalant multilingualism
- German, 200 million: an eccentric in central Europe
- French, 250 million: death to la différence
- Malay, 275 million: the one that won
- Russian, 275 million: on being Indo-European
- Portuguese, 275 million: punching above its weight
- Bengali, 275 million: world leaders in abugidas
- Arabic, 375 million: a concise dictionary of our Arabic
- Hindi-Urdu, 550 million: always something breaking us in two
- Spanish, 575 million: ¿Ser or estar? that's the question
- Mandarin, 1.3 billion: the mythical Chinese script
- Japanese revisited: a writing system lacking in system
- English, 1.5 billion: a special lingua franca?
- Isbn
- 9780802128799
- Label
- Babel : around the world in twenty languages
- Title
- Babel
- Title remainder
- around the world in twenty languages
- Statement of responsibility
- Gaston Dorren
- Language
- eng
- Summary
-
- A tour of the world's twenty most-spoken languages explores the history, geography, linguistics, and cultures that have been shaped by languages and their customs
- "English is the world language, except that most of the world doesn't speak it--only one in five people does. Gaston Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world's 7.4 or so billion people in their mother tongues, you would need to know no fewer than twenty languages. He sets out to explore these top twenty world languages, which range from the familiar (French, Spanish) to the surprising (Malay, Javanese, Punjabi). [This book] whisks the reader on a delightful journey to every continent of the world, tracing how these world languages rose to greatness while others fell away, and showing how speakers today handle the foibles of their mother tongues. Whether exploring tongue-tying phonetics, complicated writing scripts, or mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs. Among many other things, Babel will teach you why modern Turks can't read books that are a mere seventy-five years old, what it means in practice for Russian and English to be relatives, and how Japanese developed separate "dialects" for men and women. Dorren lets you in on his personal trials and triumphs while studying Vietnamese, debunks ten widespread myths about Chinese characters, and discovers that Swahili became the lingua franca in a part of the world where people routinely speak three or more languages. Witty, fascinating and utterly compelling, Babel will change the way you look at and listen to the world and how it speaks."--Dust jacket
- Cataloging source
- YDX
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Dorren, Gaston
- Dewey number
- 409
- Illustrations
-
- illustrations
- maps
- portraits
- charts
- Index
- index present
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Linguistic geography
- Language and languages
- Language and languages
- Label
- Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren
- Note
- Maps on end-papers
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
-
- text
- still image
- cartographic image
- Content type code
-
- txt
- sti
- cri
- Content type MARC source
-
- rdacontent
- rdacontent
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Introduction: twenty languages: half the world -- Vietnamese, 85 million: linguistic moutaineering -- Korean, 85 million: sound and sensibility -- Tamil, 90 million: a matter of life and death -- Turkish, 90 million: irreparably improved -- Javanese, 95 million: talking up, talking down -- Persian, 110 million: empire builders and construction workers -- Punjabi, 125 million: the tone is the message -- Japanese, 130 million: linguistic gender apartheid -- Swahili, 135 million: Africa's nonchalant multilingualism -- German, 200 million: an eccentric in central Europe -- French, 250 million: death to la différence -- Malay, 275 million: the one that won -- Russian, 275 million: on being Indo-European -- Portuguese, 275 million: punching above its weight -- Bengali, 275 million: world leaders in abugidas -- Arabic, 375 million: a concise dictionary of our Arabic -- Hindi-Urdu, 550 million: always something breaking us in two -- Spanish, 575 million: ¿Ser or estar? that's the question -- Mandarin, 1.3 billion: the mythical Chinese script -- Japanese revisited: a writing system lacking in system -- English, 1.5 billion: a special lingua franca?
- Control code
- on1028525722
- Dimensions
- 23 cm
- Edition
- First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 360 pages
- Isbn
- 9780802128799
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations, maps, portraits, charts
- Label
- Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren
- Note
- Maps on end-papers
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
-
- text
- still image
- cartographic image
- Content type code
-
- txt
- sti
- cri
- Content type MARC source
-
- rdacontent
- rdacontent
- rdacontent
- Contents
- Introduction: twenty languages: half the world -- Vietnamese, 85 million: linguistic moutaineering -- Korean, 85 million: sound and sensibility -- Tamil, 90 million: a matter of life and death -- Turkish, 90 million: irreparably improved -- Javanese, 95 million: talking up, talking down -- Persian, 110 million: empire builders and construction workers -- Punjabi, 125 million: the tone is the message -- Japanese, 130 million: linguistic gender apartheid -- Swahili, 135 million: Africa's nonchalant multilingualism -- German, 200 million: an eccentric in central Europe -- French, 250 million: death to la différence -- Malay, 275 million: the one that won -- Russian, 275 million: on being Indo-European -- Portuguese, 275 million: punching above its weight -- Bengali, 275 million: world leaders in abugidas -- Arabic, 375 million: a concise dictionary of our Arabic -- Hindi-Urdu, 550 million: always something breaking us in two -- Spanish, 575 million: ¿Ser or estar? that's the question -- Mandarin, 1.3 billion: the mythical Chinese script -- Japanese revisited: a writing system lacking in system -- English, 1.5 billion: a special lingua franca?
- Control code
- on1028525722
- Dimensions
- 23 cm
- Edition
- First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.
- Extent
- 360 pages
- Isbn
- 9780802128799
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations, maps, portraits, charts
Library Locations
-
Chevy Chase LibraryBorrow it5625 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20015, US38.9651433 -77.07510599999999
-
Cleveland Park LibraryBorrow it3310 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20008, US38.9338203 -77.05791820000002
-
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial LibraryBorrow it901 G Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001, US38.8986949 -77.0247823
-
Shepherd Park (Juanita E. Thornton) LibraryBorrow it7420 Georgia Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20012, US38.9803141 -77.026951
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.dclibrary.org/portal/Babel--around-the-world-in-twenty-languages/zHxUOoRyT2Q/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.dclibrary.org/portal/Babel--around-the-world-in-twenty-languages/zHxUOoRyT2Q/">Babel : around the world in twenty languages, Gaston Dorren</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.dclibrary.org/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.dclibrary.org/">DC Public Library System</a></span></span></span></span></div>
