Lingo A Language Spotter s Guide to Europe Welcome to Europe as you ve never known it before seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects Combining linguistics and cultural history Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour

Welcome to Europe as you ve never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour of the continent, from Proto Indo European the common ancestor of most European languages to the rise and rise of English, via the complexities of Welsh plurals and CzechWelcome to Europe as you ve never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing tour of the continent, from Proto Indo European the common ancestor of most European languages to the rise and rise of English, via the complexities of Welsh plurals and Czech pronunciation Along the way we learn why Esperanto will never catch on, how the language of William the Conqueror lives on in the Channel Islands and why Finnish is the easiest European language.Surprising, witty and full of extraordinary facts, this book will change the way you think about the languages around you Polyglot Gaston Dorren might even persuade you that English is like Chinese.
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249 Gaston Dorren Alison Edwards

Having started to talk before I could walk, I remember my pre schooler s frustration at being unable to read In my teens and later, I learnt a handful of languages sort of well I ve dabbled in many others since.As a journalist, I published two well received books on linguistics, both in Dutch Nieuwe tongen New Tongues, 1999 on the languages of migrants in the Benelux, and Taaltoerisme Language Tourism, 2012 , a lively grand tour of 53 European languages The latter was the basis for Lingo subtitled A language spotter s guide to Europe in the UK and Around Europe in sixty languages in the US I am currently working on a new book, whose subtitle will be The world beyond English.I live in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, with my wife, Marleen.I have a rather catholic taste in fiction In English, from David Mitchell, Pat Barker and Alain de Botton to P.G Wodehouse, Jasper Fforde and Rowling s Harry Potter series In my mother tongue, from Harry Mulisch and the van het Reve brothers to many others of lesser international renown.When it comes to linguistic non fiction, I like Guy Deutscher, John McWhorter, David Crystal, Steven Pinker, Nicholas Ostler, Karl Heinz G ttert German , Marc van Oostendorp Dutch and Joop van der Horst Dutch.