Here is an informative introduction to language: its origins in the past, its growth through history, and its present use for communication between peoples. It is at the same time a history of language, a guide to foreign tongues, and a method for learning them. It shows, through basic vocabularies, family resemblances of languages -- Teutonic, Romance, Greek -- helpful tricks of translation, key combinations of roots and phonetic patterns. It presents by common-sense methods the most helpful approach to the mastery of many languages; it condenses vocabulary to a minimum of essential words; it simplifies grammar in an entirely new way; and it teaches a language as it is actually used in everyday life.
Reviews with the most likes.
The Loom of Language is about languages.
I have been interested in languages since my big sister started learning her first foreign language and I realized there is such a thing... I was 5. So I know a lot of the things in this book.
Not all, though :-D
He has a very interesting way of presenting things, and drawing conclusions, and associating thing. Well... to me, at least.
It might not be a very... scientifically sound book, I can understand the linguistic objections, but the purpose of it is to make it easier for English speakers to dare to speak or try to understand other languages, and that it does well, I think.
