Print this page
What Language Is

What Language Is And What It Isn't and What It Could Be

Paperback (07 Aug 2012)

Not available for sale

Includes delivery to the United States

Out of stock

This service is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Check stock

Publisher's Synopsis

A love letter to languages, celebrating their curiosities and smashing assumptions about correct grammar

An eye-opening tour for all language lovers, What Language Is offers a fascinating new perspective on the way humans communicate. from vanishing languages spoken by a few hundred people to major tongues like Chinese, and with copious revelations about the hodgepodge nature of English, John McWhorter shows readers how to see and hear languages as a linguist does.

Packed with big ideas about language alongside wonderful trivia, What Language Is explains how languages across the globe (the Queen's English and Suriname creoles alike) originate, evolve, multiply, and divide. Raising provocative questions about what qualifies as a language (so-called slang does have structured grammar), McWhorter takes readers on a marvelous journey through time and place-from Persia to the languages of Sri Lanka-to deliver a feast of facts about the wonders of human linguistic expression.

Book information

ISBN: 9781592407200
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Imprint: Avery
Pub date:
Language: English
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 325g
Height: 222mm
Width: 141mm
Spine width: 20mm

We recommend

$4.43off

Introducing Linguistics

R. L. Trask, Bill Ma...

Paperback
Published 03 Sep 2009

Save $4.43

  • RRP $11.54
  • $7.11
Add to basket

$0.49off

Arabs

Tim Mackintosh-Smith

Paperback
Published 03 Dec 2019

Save $0.49

  • RRP $19.25
  • $18.76
Add to basket

$2.66off

The Secret Life of Pronouns

James W. Pennebaker

Paperback
Published 18 Jul 2013

Save $2.66

  • RRP $19.25
  • $16.59
Add to basket

$3.23off

The Colossal Book of Amazing Facts for Curious Minds

Nigel Henbest

Paperback
Published 14 Sep 2023

Save $3.23

  • RRP $21.82
  • $18.59
Add to basket

$1.53off

The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful

Milo Rossi

Paperback
Published 05 Oct 2023

Save $1.53

  • RRP $19.25
  • $17.72
Add to basket

$8.63off

The Utilita Football Yearbook 2023-2024

Headline

Paperback
Published 10 Aug 2023

Save $8.63

  • RRP $38.52
  • $29.89
Add to basket

$4.72off

The Knitting Pattern Writing Handbook

Kristina McGrath, Sa...

Hardback
Published 09 Nov 2023

Save $4.72

  • RRP $21.82
  • $17.10
Add to basket
How to Crochet

Sara Delaney

Paperback
Published 26 Aug 2014

  • $7.94
Add to basket

$3.22off

400 Knitting Stitches

Potter Craft

Paperback
Published 07 Feb 2016

Save $3.22

  • RRP $23.10
  • $19.88
Add to basket