The Search for the Perfect Language

Since ancient times and right down into the present, mankind has been searching for (1) the original language of humans, (2) the holy language that God and Adam used, (3) language that reveals the mystical essence of the universe and things, and (4) a language that eliminates the problems of ambiguity and ill logic so common to natural language, that reveals in its very form the scientific essence of things and (4) a simpler language that all people can learn and communicate with, and so achieve Utopian peace and harmony. Eco tells this story with his usual erudition and intimate knowledge of European cultural history.



For me, most of the story since the Enlightenment was known to me, but prior to that the story was wholly new. There's a show more whole world of European civilization that I (and I suspect most Americans) have never known, primarily due to the fact that most of us don't read Latin and Italian.



The most negative thing I can say about the book is that, while most of the time foreign language citations are translated, sometimes they are not -- and at crucial places for understanding. I assume this is an oversight, since Eco is so comfortable in so many languages. He probably has difficulty remembering the limitations of us mere intellectual mortals! show less

Thorough treatise on the 2000 years of a quest for a language that will not only provide signs for the things around us but a perfect, "natural" relationship. Entertaining, deep, intelligent and at times hilariously funny when it comes to all the erratic dead-end ideas and proposal that had been developed over the centuries.

I so wanted to like this book. I looked forward to reading it. I was happy the day I came home from Borders with it. (Remember Borders?) It was so boring I had trouble finishing it. I like the topic, I should have liked this book. I threw it on my closet floor for a long time before I could bring myself to finish the last chapter. I still have this book. I keep thinking if I was perhaps smarter I would have appreciated it more so I hang onto it in some misguided attempt to make me feel good (or perhaps bad?).

good as a european historical review. wish there’d been more theoretical asides. plenty of fun details and anecdotes though

A clever topic, well explored.

Wasn't really about what I wanted it to be about.

La búsqueda de la lengua perfecta es la historia de una utopía, la persecución de un sueño imposible que se ha mantenido a lo largo de los siglos. Cuando la unidad política y lingüística del mundo romano se viene abajo y comienzan a formarse las distintas lenguas que todavía hoy se hablan en Europa, la cultura europea rememora el episodio bíblico de la confusio linguarum babélica tratado de recuperar y reconstruir la lengua perfecta.