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Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages, by Gaston Dorren
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Review
Praise for Lingo:“[Dorren’s] deep and broad expertise allows him to take a familiar, mostly bemused approach to the linguistic patchwork of Europe . . . as enlightening as it is entertaining.”—Boston Globe“A wonderful read . . . [Dorren’s] lively and insightful book takes the reader on a linguistic tour of Europe. In 60 witty, bite-sized chapters, Dorren makes sense of the babel of voices, exploring the origins of the continent’s languages and dialects and highlighting the surprise commonalities, stark differences and quirky singularities . . . Practically every page comes studded with at least one fascinating fact . . . illuminating and entertaining . . . [A] unique, page-turning book”—Minneapolis Star Tribune“Mr. Dorren’s language tourism takes in not just the familiar monuments of English, French, Spanish, and German but also the unsung marvels of Latvian, Cornish, and Luxembourgish . . . A brisk and breezy tour . . . Bulge[s] with linguistic trivia . . . [Dorren] has an eye for genuinely surprising detail . . . [His] book is a peppy advertisement for the rewards of having several languages in one’s head.”—Wall Street Journal“[A] playful survey of sixty languages spoken in Europe . . . Dorren gives voice to an important linguistic truth: ‘Today’s errors tend to become tomorrow’s correct usage.’”—New Yorker“Lingo features amusing tales from five dozen languages, languages that define the nations of Europe . . . a great example of how language helps us get a little insight into the many cultures of Europe.”—Rick Steves, Travel with Rick Steves“A worldly delight . . . This language writer dazzles. His stylistic flair is more than just entertaining—it crystallizes abstract ideas he conveys through vivid imagery . . . Dorren approaches his subject with passion and humour. His chapters are diverse, each normally highlighting the peculiarities of a single language . . . Dorren’s pace is swift . . . For language tourists, Lingo is a tour de force.”—Winnipeg Free Press“[Dorren’s] linguistic tour is fascinating, funny, surprising, and enlightening.”—Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture (10 Books to Read in December)“This linguistic-led trip of the tongues across Europe doles out bite-size bon mots about the history, eccentricities and diversity of languages both obvious (German) and obscure (Gagauz). Plus, it’s laugh-out-loud funny—and that’s in all languages.”—American Way (December Picks for the Traveler)“Dorren’s book is so much fun a reader might feel that half of Babel’s curse has already been lifted.”—National Post “Lingo is a charming, well-researched tour of the languages, language families, and linguistic history of Europe . . . While keeping readers entertained, [Dorren] manages to cover not just the usual suspects but also such languages as Sami, Yiddish, Romani, Armenian, Ossetian, Basque, Welsh, Manx, and Esperanto . . . Dorren’s entertaining book is just right for academic consumption and a nice treat for general readers looking for an overview of linguistic Europe.â€â€•CHOICE “[A] fascinating read . . . Covering the idiosyncracies of 50-plus languages, from the spelling of Scots Gaelic to the counting conventions of Breton, Dorren weaves tales of conquest, social mores and isolating landscapes with remarkable ease . . . From Yiddish to Romani to English, the book is entertaining. Now, if only I can remember all these anecdotes for my next party.”—MultiLingual“Wonderful . . . This intriguing, thoughtful book will delight those who love words; it is also a round, solid education in the vastness of the world’s citizens’ ability and desire to express themselves . . . Amusing, too!”—Booklist“In this bubbly linguistic endeavor, journalist and polyglot Dorren covers the evolution and peccadillos of 60 European languages . . . Dorren thoughtfully walks readers through the weird evolution of languages . . . with quirky tidbits aplenty . . . Rounded out with helpful insights such as the impact of Martin Luther . . . and the refutation of the notion that Eskimos have 100 words for snow . . . Dorren has crafted an immersive and illuminating study of something many of us take for granted.”—Publishers Weekly“Dutch linguist and journalist Dorren . . . reveals many intriguing nuggets of information about languages from the familiar (French, German, Spanish) to the arcane (Manx, Ossetian, Sorbian) . . . For linguists and readers truly thrilled by the meticulous study of languages.”—Kirkus Reviews“For language lovers and those who enjoy obscure facts, European culture, and politics—or all of the above—Lingo will be an entertaining book to dip into, a tasting menu of the pleasures of languages.”—Shelf Awareness“A joyful guided tour around Europe’s linguistic landscape . . . genuinely interesting and enormous fun. Particularly impressive is Dorren’s ability to flip with ease from jokes and surprising facts to the discussion of complex linguistic ideas. . . . For the sadly monoglot, Lingo is a wake-up call: a book that brims with joy at linguistic variety and invention, and reminds us what he—and we—are missing.”—Sunday Telegraph“The depth and breadth of [Dorren’s] understanding and knowledge are awesome . . . this charming, funny and fascinating gem of a book has persuaded me of the richness we are in danger of losing.”—Times (UK)“I can’t praise it enough. If you ever wanted to know how exactly Finnish and Hungarian are related and how Turkish fits in, it is clearly explained here in two to three pages. And so is everything else you ever wanted to learn about European languages but were afraid to ask. Brilliant, witty, excellent!”—Times Higher Education Supplement, Best Books of 2014“Learned and pleasantly ironic . . . In this entertaining exercise in “language tourism,” the author isn’t frightened of making judgments. . . Impressively, he has taken classes in many of the languages he writes about, as well as in sign language, about which he writes illuminatingly . . . His tour of the continent is a richly diverting exercise, organized into sections on languages and their families, history, politics, writing, vocabulary, grammar and state of endangeredness. He has something interesting to point out about nearly every topic.”—Guardian“A series of quirky linguistic stories full of etymological pleasures . . . if you believe Umberto Eco, “The language of Europe is translation.” And certainly much of what’s revealing in Lingo is to be found not in the narratives or mechanics of individual languages but in the interface between them. . . . there are many etymological pleasures to be had from this book. . . full of charm and pleasing detail.”—Spectator“Lingo is not meant to be an encyclopedia but a language “amuse-bouche”. Smorgasbord might be a better description: through sixty compelling stories about European linguistics, it tells us an impressive amount about Europe. . . . an entertaining, accessible guide.”—Financial Times“Full of odd linguistic facts . . . fascinating.”—Times Literary Supplement“I love this book. It’s witty and informative, with a wealth of engaging comments on all things language-related. . . . Such amusements, along with the book’s mine of information, make this a great seasonal stocking filler — whether you’re a lingophile or not.”—Morning Star“A new approach to understanding the world . . . ideal for any cunning linguist.”—Wanderlust“A multitude of dinner-party facts: there’s no such thing as Norwegian (the ‘national tongue’ comprises a collection of regional dialects); that Spaniards utter an average 7.82 syllables a second; and that the last speaker of Dalmatian, in a rare example of a language dying with a bang instead of a whimper, was killed by a land mine.”—Geographical Magazine
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About the Author
Gaston Dorren is a linguist, journalist, and polyglot. He speaks Dutch, Limburgish, English, German, French, and Spanish, and reads nine more languages. He is the author of two books in Dutch, and the creator of an app, The Language Lover's Guide to Europe. Dorren lives in the Netherlands.
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Product details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (December 13, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802125719
ISBN-13: 978-0802125712
Product Dimensions:
5.4 x 1 x 8.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.2 out of 5 stars
70 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#668,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is a very entertaining book for amateur linguists, or anyone interested in European languages in general. Also recommended as a gift for any friends who may have a little curiosity about languages, but may not be willing to commit to more in depth books.The book does have a few flaws, such as glossing over differences between Slavic languages, and the proposed Bulgarian-Slovak merger is a bit tongue in cheek. Its treatment of Belarussian and Faroese is also glib. I think some chapter headings are in jest, e.g. the fact that Faroese retained cases leads the author to call it "Romans North of Hadrian's Wall". The author does correctly point to the fact that the general trend among both Germanic and Romance languages is to become less inflected over the centuries, and lose their cases. He makes interesting case that the languages which are relatively isolated geographically (Faroese, Icelandic are good examples for Germanic, Romanian such an instance of a Romance language) tend to retain cases and other archaic linguistic features.I don't find the author's sense of humor very funny, e.g. calling "irksome" languages that have retained inflections, especially the Slavic ones with a multitude of declensions and conjugations. The simplicity of English grammar is indeed a very useful factor in making it _the_ global language, but that doesn't mean that more complex languages should be looked down on. People who want or need to learn those languages should just buck down and learn the rules, just as English learners need to put up with the complex differences between the pronunciation and spelling. They can be understood in their historical context, and the multi-layered development of the English can the appreciated by those who are interested in learning about it. The author does a very good job at that, and calling English spelling "a headache" is clearly in teasing, and not jarring. Becoming a global language does take its toll on English--vestigial features are disappearing much faster than they might otherwise, e.g. the subjunctive mood or some instances of cases ("who" replacing "whom", which is now seen as overly pedantic). I agree with the author that this is an irreversible trend, like water flowing downstream by taking the path of least resistance. The few exceptions just confirm the rule, e.g. certain periods in the evolution of Romani languages, when they flowed upstream as far as (re)gaining inflections. Overall the good outweighs the bad with this trend toward a simple global language; I suppose the only drawback of it is that it makes it too convenient for monolingual native speakers of English to remain monoglots, thus missing out on the numerous advantages of bilingualism, from Alzheimer-proofing their brains to getting the perspective to better understand their own language. A small measure of this perspective is still possible to attain without learning fluently another language, by reading this very book.This is why I give this book five stars. It is clearly not meant to be a comprehensive survey of all European languages, let alone getting into much depth exploring any particular language, but is instead a collection of interesting tidbits about most of the European languages. I liked very much the insightful observations about how European languages are related and the commentary on historical trends, e.g. the author's explanation of the evolution of Iberian languages as 3 parallel windows with blinds that have first been rolled up (or to be more exact, fragmented in the first place by the Islamic conquest in the 8th century) and then pulled back down (with the Reconquista), but remaining fragmented in 3 main pieces. This is helpful in seeing Galician as the mother tongue of Portuguese, even though it might not be obvious at first sight (having no country of its own).
Here's a modest volume that will instruct and entertain anyone who uses a language. It's full of thumbnail portraits of languages great and small from all over. With 60 languages to choose from, I can guarantee that you'll encounter several you never heard of (Gagauz, Faeroese, anyone?) and several that are used by many millions of speakers. The author outlines several jobs that languages have to perform (like counting things) and shows the reader how different languages solve practical counting needs (like counting in French from 50 to 100). Underlying the fascinating details is the story of PIE (Proto-Indo-European) the great-grandparent of languages spoken from Iceland to India.Reading Lingo is like wandering through a great museum, admiring one showcase after another of beautiful exhibits, then discovering, just as you leave, that you have been cleverly educated without your realizing it. You understand how all those colorful idioms and verb conjugations fit into a wondrously complex fabric of language. This is knowledge that will enrich your entire life.
I really enjoyed this book, even though I've never been overly interested in languages. It doesn't go in depth into each language, but does give a enough interesting information on each one covered. I found it very easy to read since the chapters are short, making it very easy to pick it up again without being concerned about remembering where you were at when you put it down last. I learned a lot and highly recommend it.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It scratches the surface of many languages, and goes a little bit deeper into a plethora of European languages. On the topic of European languages individually it is heavily combed through, and quite comparative in many of the chapters. As someone who studied German and French as a schoolboy and teenager, I enjoyed the chapters on both languages. As someone who is also semifluent in Albanian, I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on Albanian and it actually taught me something new about the language.I have two main points of criticism though, and they certainly don't detract from the subject itself.1) The author occasionally says things midway through a sentence or paragraph that befuddle me. The tone is if the author is talking to me, with his voice, directly. So midway through paragraphs there would be a "But you understand this, don't you?" or something such as that. For such an in-depth topic, it cut out the train of thought midway through. It gets to be slightly annoying about midway through.2) The way the chapters are structured make some sense, but ultimately were unnecessary in portrayal. We go from French to Balkan languages to Mansk to German to Irish Gaelic to Albanian to Scottish Gaelic to Yiddish to Serbo-Croatian to Norwegian, etc., etc. I felt as if I would know the topic more if the chapters were clustered into the languages they were involved in themselves. The French and Latin languages, the Balkan languages, the Finnish/Hungarian languages, the Germanic languages, etc. should have been placed with there most apparent parent language. That would have made more sense and would have given the reader the best way to broach the subject.Otherwise, a fantastic book, and one I will surly reference in the future.
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