A review by askoda
The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language by John McWhorter

5.0

What an incredible amuse-bouche of language study! Readers get luscious tastes of the different aspects of linguistics and are guided through the many intricacies of the field.

McWhorter creates a welcoming environment for curious minds and newbie scholars. His sense of humor (and some pop culture references) lighten up even the denser topics that most linguists tend to trudge through allowing readers of all backgrounds to be “in the loop”.

With his thorough and thoughtful approach to the phenomenon of ever evolving language, I was able to gain a clear sense as to what causes language change.

He also touches on how politics and academia has influenced our ideas of “proper” dialects of language (an especially common ideology in English). But as readers continue their journey, they will quickly realize that “proper” language is purely a myth!

I highly suggest this book to anyone exploring a new language or people who just want to understand how we got to over 6,000 world languages.