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There are approximately six thousand languages on Earth today, each a descendant of the tongue first spoken by Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, linguistics professor John McWhorter reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its illustrative examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, Creoles, and nonstandard dialects.
Just in time for the height of the 1992 presidential campaign, an essential dictionary for anyone seeking to understand the political doubletalk. Includes examples taken from actual speeches of politicians from Abe Lincoln to George Bush. Solomon co-authored Unreliable Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media.
A United Nations insider exposes the ugly truth about the UN—including how UN organizations have been funding terrorist groups! In the New York Times bestseller Tower of Babble, former United Nations ambassador Dore Gold blows the lid off the UN’s shocking failures to keep international peace, its corruption, its rampant anti-Americanism, and its emboldening of terrorist organizations. Citing previously unpublished documents, a brand-new chapter exclusive to this paperback edition provides the untold story of the infamous oil-for-food scandal—including the real scandal, that the UN let oil-for-food money go to fund terrorist organizations.
THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 NYT BESTSELLER 'One for Philip Pullman fans' THE TIMES 'This one is an automatic buy' GLAMOUR 'Ambitious, sweeping and epic' EVENING STANDARD 'Razor-sharp' DAILY MAIL 'An ingenious fantasy about empire' GUARDIAN
“Babel is an endlessly interesting book, and you don’t have to have any linguistic training to enjoy it . . . it’s just so much fun to read.” —NPR English is the world language, except that 80 percent of the world doesn’t speak it. Linguist Gaston Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world’s people in their mother tongues, you’d need to know no fewer than twenty languages. In Babel, he sets out to explore these top twenty world languages, which range from the familiar (French, Spanish) to the surprising (Malay, Javanese, Bengali). Whisking readers along on a delightful journey, he traces how these languages rose to greatness while others fell away, and shows how speakers today handle the foibles of their mother tongues. Whether showcasing tongue-tying phonetics, elegant but complicated writing scripts, or mind-bending quirks of grammar, Babel vividly illustrates that mother tongues are like nations: each has its own customs and beliefs that seem as self-evident to those born into it as they are surprising to outsiders. Babel reveals why modern Turks can’t read books that are a mere 75 years old, what it means in practice for Russian and English to be relatives, and how Japanese developed separate “dialects” for men and women. Dorren also shares his experiences studying Vietnamese in Hanoi, debunks ten myths about Chinese characters, and discovers the region where Swahili became the lingua franca. Witty and utterly fascinating, Babel will change how you look at and listen to the world. “Word nerds of every strain will enjoy this wildly entertaining linguistic study.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Discover how to connect with and inspire employees throughout an organization. Improve your leadership skills -- even if you aren't a "natural" communicator -- with a specific communication strategy that anyone can use. Authors Matha and Boehm present research showing that all managers can improve performance by using the principles outlined in Beyond the Babble. They explore why communication is crucial, how and when to do it, how to embed it in an organization's culture, and how to measure results. They also show how internal communications professionals can improve an organization's communication to the outside world.
In 2008, as the price of oil surged above $140 a barrel, experts said it would soon hit $200; a few months later it plunged to $30. In 1967, they said the USSR would have one of the fastest-growing economies in the year 2000; in 2000, the USSR did not exist. In 1911, it was pronounced that there would be no more wars in Europe; we all know how that turned out. Face it, experts are about as accurate as dart-throwing monkeys. And yet every day we ask them to predict the future — everything from the weather to the likelihood of a catastrophic terrorist attack. Future Babble is the first book to examine this phenomenon, showing why our brains yearn for certainty about the future, why we are attracted to those who predict it confidently, and why it’s so easy for us to ignore the trail of outrageously wrong forecasts. In this fast-paced, example-packed, sometimes darkly hilarious book, journalist Dan Gardner shows how seminal research by UC Berkeley professor Philip Tetlock proved that pundits who are more famous are less accurate — and the average expert is no more accurate than a flipped coin. Gardner also draws on current research in cognitive psychology, political science, and behavioral economics to discover something quite reassuring: The future is always uncertain, but the end is not always near.
Two nationally renowned congressional scholars review the evolution of Congress from the early days of the republic to 2006, arguing that extreme partisanship and a disregard for institutional procedures are responsible for the institution's current state of dysfunction.
One young boy is the key to the universe. In this supernatural thriller, a young boy is discovered to be the link between the human race and the farthest reaches of the universe. For Bobbie Cagle, the normal difficulties of growing up are overshadowed by his unique condition, being misdiagnosed as autistic. Caught between his loving mother and those who would use him for their own purposes, Bobbie stands at the center of the universe and forces the human race to the edge of their own evolutionary line. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. -Genesis 11:6 Upon the Towers of Babel, the people of the Earth scattered, and silence fell. Now, on the brink of a new age, the human race leaps forward into the evolutionary void and changes the course of human history forever. For young Bobbie Cagle, the normal difficulties of growing up are overshadowed by his unique condition. Placed on the spectrum, Bobbie’s inability to communicate normally is misdiagnosed for years as Autism and masks the great part in human history that he is destined to play. Unknowingly able to receive transmissions from the farthest reaches of the universe, young Bobbie’s life is forever changed when his unique ability is discovered. Coveted by those who would use him for their own purpose, Bobbie and his mother flee their home out of desperation and fear. In the course of their escape, the truth behind Bobbie’s gift and the effects it may have on the planet begin to the reveal themselves, all the while the future of the human race hangs in the balance. Find out what fate has in store for the human race and grab your copy of Babble today!
This innovative collection of essays shows how linguistic diversity has inspired people across time and cultures to embark on adventurous journeys through the translation of texts. It tells the story of how ideas have travelled via the medium of translation into different languages and cultures, focusing on illustrated examples ranging from Greek papyri through illuminated manuscripts and fine early books to fantasy languages (such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish), the search for a universal language and the challenges of translation in multicultural Britain.Starting with the concept of Babel itself, which illustrates the early cultural prominence of multilingualism, and with an illustration of a Mediterranean language of four millennia ago (Linear A) which still resists deciphering, it goes on to examine how languages have interacted with each other in different contexts.The book also explores the multilingual transmission of key texts in religion, science (the history of Euclid), animal fable (from Aesop in Greek to Beatrix Potter via La Fontaine, with some fascinating Southeast Asian books), fairy-tale, fantasy and translations of the great Greek epics of Homer.It is lavishly illustrated with a diverse range of material, from papyrus fragments found at Oxyrhynchus to Esperanto handbooks to Asterix cartoons, each offering its own particular adventure into translation.