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.