Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages

I found this book quite informative, and learned a lot about different languages around the world. The concept is interesting, and the author writes well. There are, however, two things that I had problems with: First, it is a lengthy book, clocking at 400+ pages, and second, while the author does his best to explain different grammatical and linguistic features of other languages, some of these explanations are quite technical, and therefore difficult to understand. Still, if you want to learn more about the world’s twenty most commonly spoken languages, this book is an excellent place to start!

Overall this is a good read. You get bite- sized history and stories about each of the most-spoken languages in the world. It certainly encourages me to learn more about the languages I'm learning.That being said, there's a lot left to be desired. With some of the languages he seems not to have cared delving into. Korean was the worst for it. Hardly anything about the history of Korean or an interesting vignette about its uses, etc. In fact, he talked more about English in that chapter than Korean.If you're interested in language as a whole, this is a good starting point. You'll find twenty very fun and interesting stories that help us realize that we're not all that different from each other.

It was TERRIFIC. The subject is exciting and his writing has a nice style suggestive of a serious linguist channeling Al Franken, Dave Barry, or Bill Bryson (especially the latter's travel books of 20-30 years ago). That's pretty amazing since the author is not a native speaker of English, yet has a tremendous sense of style that comes through clearly in his writing in English. (From my experience, he is quite fun to read in Dutch too.) . This one was of my most fun reads in quite a while, along with being very informative.Anyone who is interested in language, whether or not you know one or more languages well, will enjoy discovering the countless ways the world's languages express themselves. A combination of linguistics, sociolinguistics, and a bit of history (linguistic and otherwise), this is one book I, for one, could not put down. I am a language nut, but I think anyone can benefit from the information in this book, which may affect your worldview or at least your view of some languages. There isn't a boring page in the entire book.

My family loves languages and I was excited to find a book on this topic. The statistics about languages in the world are especially interesting and help to provide you with a better perspective on the languages you know, or want to learn. Many of the stories about the individual languages I had never heard before and were fascinating. However, I do think that the author needs a rethink on the way he organized the information. More than a survey on each language, with basic information shared on each one, this book gives you select, interesting facts about each language. Each chapter presents a language and sometimes he tells you about the grammar quirks, sometimes what it's like to learn the language, sometimes the history of the language, and sometimes how the language compares to others. But, there is no consistency from chapter to chapter. I recommend a rewrite using all the information he has, but fleshing out each language fully so you know all of these characteristics of it, and not just selected ones. I wanted to have my 15 year old read the book because she loves languages, but decided not to because of the organization of it.

Incredibly fascinating read. Funny and accessible. A pleasure to read from start to finish for any language enthusiast. Highly recommended.

Gaston Dorren’s description of various features of the world’s twenty most spoken languages is anything but babbling. Although the book does not have a consistent theme, Dorren blends biographical, historical, and cultural material along with morphological descriptions of languages into something like a delicious cheesecake. There are no earth-shattering theses or discoveries, but the sparkling text and original material make the subject matter interesting, even for non-linguaphiles.For example, one can learn facts as various as the history of the Indian subcontinent and how it shaped Hindi/Urdu/Bengali as well as that Chinese characters are often joined together as syllables to make words. Dorren further explains why Portuguese and not Dutch is one of the world’s major languages and why learning German is so difficult for English speakers—though they were the same language some twelve hundred years ago.Throughout the text is marked by a welcome cosmopolitan approach to cultures and history. Dorren does not fall for the mistake of assuming that European culture has increasingly dominated the world and so the histories of non-European peoples before contact with Westerners are of little interest. Instead, the interaction between Aryans and Dravidians, the spread of Malay and the separation between Japan and China are all discussed. For someone who received a strongly Westernized approach to modern history in school, the lack of an overriding narrative was not fog-inducing but more like fresh air.I wouldn't say that everybody should read this book or that the book contains something that is going to be culturally transformative but if one is looking for something relatively light that still goes beyond pop-culture this is an excellent choice. With the holiday season upon us, Babel is an ideal gift for polyglots or merely just aspiring ones. A pleasant read all around.

Language has always intrigued me - and this book has given me so much information on the beginnings and interrelationships of major languages - and even some not-so-major ones. I think even the MILDLY interested reader would find this book interesting.

Bra att ha

A very good read for the lay man who is interested in language, culture and history.A missed a chapter about the languages of the indiginous people of the Amerikas.