Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages

A truly fascinating look at the 20 most-spoken languages in the world, Babel is freewheeling, casual, and discursive, but not dumbed down or shallow—the kind of book Simon Garfield should be aiming for. The author is fluent in six languages and reads nine more. Because English is a learned language for him—his mother tongue is Limburgish, of all things, and I wish the format of the book had let him talk about that!—he has a perspective on it that I haven't encountered in books about language written by native speakers.

Each chapter examines a single language, or more precisely, examines either the linguistic features or the social history of the language's home culture. The close relation between some of the featured languages show more mean that not every chapter is actually about the language: there's not enough that's unique about Portuguese to fill a chapter in a book that also discusses Spanish, so the chapter on Portuguese is mostly about how languages spread through colonization. As a language geek--and who else would pick up this book--I would have preferred that the chapter discuss the variations in the several languages of the Iberian peninsula, and how only two became associated with political power. But that's just me. And there's certainly enough geeky linguistic detail (about cases, Japanese "women's language," and the importance of social status in Javanese speech, for example) to keep me happy.

Dorren refers to other rarefied books that I'm familiar with (The World's Writing Systems, edited by Daniels and Bright, and The Turkish Language Reform: a Catastrophic Success by Geoffrey Lewis), so he and I are of like mind. Perhaps because I find him so perceptive and discerning, I don't mind the liberties he takes, such as applying judgmental adjectives to certain language features or a slight tendency to glibness. Don't let me scare you: this is actually an easy read! The chapters are short and interesting, with much to learn on each page, and if you want to skip over the seven-page "dictionary" of Arabic roots or the chapter on Bengali (not that different from Hindi, from the perspective of one who is unlikely ever to learn either), it won't hurt a thing. This is also a fun book just to dip into. show less

My interest in picking up this book was strictly light entertainment, particularly in regards to the foibles of English, though Dorren gives the same treatment to the other nineteen languages he examines. If there is a running theme below the mission of providing a snappy introduction into what makes each of these 20 languages interesting, it's how language can become a bone of contention. If you come away feeling that Dorren's treatment is too slight for your purposes, don't worry; he provides an extensive list of further reading.

he tour of the world's twenty largest languages doesn't pretend to be an exhaustive analysis or a detailed comparison. Rather, it looks at a striking feature of each language -- how it developed, for example, or who speaks it, or how it is written, or whatever. Some readers may object to this free and easy approach, but I found it both entertaining and informative. Terrific book for language mavens.

Wonderful descriptions of the world’s twenty most-used languages, with history about how they developed and comparisons of their grammars. As an idiot single-language speaker I’m still really interested in other languages and this was a treat.

Popular linguistics book, meaning it's not academic research but an interesting read with some insights into how languages are interconnected. Enjoyed the author's sense of humor and observations that some languages are quirky and the rules make no sense.

Not well organized

"Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages" is a follow-up to "Mr. Dorren's 2015 "Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages". You can see a theme here. I haven't read "Lingo" but it's said to be "breezy", an adjective I hardly associate with language.

Mr. Dorren begins with his failure to learn Vietnamese. Yes Vietnamese is a difficult language but people do learn it reasonably well and I kept wondering why a person who has studied so many languages had so much trouble with the structures. Pronunciation yes, the tones and all that, but why the structures when the language is written in a Latin script. A mystery.

People who study many languages learn each one faster than the one before if they have a good teacher and are show more motivated to learn. (I can't tell you how often I've played with French). Sir Richard Francis Burton the explorer, is said to have known 29 languages and could pick up a new one in a week. I'm not that good, but I can do a lot in 3 weeks immersion with a good teacher. I haven't tried Vietnamese though and so I'll give Mr. Dorren some leeway.

But how does he manage to make the stories of these languages so very dull? Language study is fascinating, whether you come at from linguistics, history, culture, or learning. As other reviewers have mentioned, Mr. Dorren tries to present them all in some measure, but the focus keeps changing and there is no good rhythm.

I received a review copy of "Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages" by Gaston Dorren (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com. show less

I wish every chapter had been its own book