cover image On Language: Descent from the Tower of Babel

On Language: Descent from the Tower of Babel

Rod Mengham. Little Brown and Company, $24.95 (188pp) ISBN 978-0-316-56671-1

Mengham begins this selective, erudite overview of languages by reviewing neurological research that suggests the brain is structured according to a preexistent pattern including universally shared aspects of language. He brings the latest scholarship to bear on such issues as the origins of writing and of alphabets, patterns of language dispersal, the increase of ambiguity in ancient Greek under Athenian democracy, and modern attempts to reconstruct Proto-Indo-European, a mother tongue which flourished over 6000 years ago, giving rise to Greek, Sanskrit, Slavonic, Iranian, Germanic and other language groups. Director of studies in English at Cambridge University, Mengham also delves into such topics as Samuel Johnson's famed dictionary, the impact of nationalism and class divisions on literature from the American and French Revolutions to the 1840s, and today's lingos of advertising and ``computerspeak.'' (Apr.)