ISBN: 9780802147806 - babel: around the world in twenty languages (15 Ergebnisse)

Paperback. Zustand: Very Good. English is the world language, except that most of the world doesn't speak it--only one in five people does. Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world's 7.4 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, Bengali). Babel 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 showcasing tongue-tying phonetics or elegant but complicated writing scripts, and mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs that seem as self-evident to those born into it as they are surprising to the outside world. Among many other things, Babel will teach you why modern Turks can't read books that are a mere 75 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 in Hanoi, 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.…

Paperback. Zustand: Good. English is the world language, except that most of the world doesn't speak it--only one in five people does. Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world's 7.4 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, Bengali). Babel 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 showcasing tongue-tying phonetics or elegant but complicated writing scripts, and mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs that seem as self-evident to those born into it as they are surprising to the outside world. Among many other things, Babel will teach you why modern Turks can't read books that are a mere 75 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 in Hanoi, 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. …

Paperback. Zustand: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Paperback. Zustand: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.

Zustand: Good. Reprint. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good.

Paperback. Zustand: Brand New. reprint edition. 360 pages. 8.50x5.50x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Paperback. Zustand: Brand New. reprint edition. 360 pages. 8.50x5.50x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Zustand: New. pp. 368.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - - Babel follows on from the highly praised Lingo, which sold over 11,000 copies and is backlisting in paperback. It was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as 'a peppy advertisement for the rewards of having several languages in one's head' and by the Boston Globe: 'as enlightening as it is entertaining.' Babel will appeal to a similar audience of language lovers and armchair travelers. - Did you know more people speak Malay than French Or that Javanese is among the world's top twenty languages, while Italian is not Babel celebrates the quirks of the world's languages, including why Punjabi may, like Chinese, be a tonal language, though many of its speakers do not realize this, or how it's impossible for Turkish people today to understand books written in the early part of the twentieth century because of the rapid pace of language change. - Dorren is an authority on languages, with an ability to read in fifteen and speak six. He has an ideal profile to write this book and is a perfect interviewee on questions of vanishing linguistic diversity, how languages change our brains, and how we're connected (and separated) by the history of our languages. For Dorren's previous book, Lingo, he did interviews including with Rick Steves and we expect even more interest for this book. - Galley and buzz outreach to translators (including at the ALTA conference in November) and to language advocates and activists. - For fans of Is That A Fish In Your Ear by David Bellos, Between You and Me by Mary Norris (who reviewed Lingo for the New Yorker's In Brief), and The Riddle of the Labyrinth by Margalit Fox. - While Lingo focused on Europe, Babel presents a truly global look at language, including many languages spoken by heritage groups in the U.S. - With photos, charts, and other illustrations, a perfect gift book for language-lovers. …

Zustand: New. &Uumlber den AutorrnrnGaston Dorren is a linguist, journalist, and polyglot. He speaks Dutch, Limburgish, English, German, French, and Spanish, and reads nine more languages. He is the author of Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages.