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Lingo
Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages | Gaston Dorren
13 posts | 10 read | 6 to read
Whether you're a frequent visitor to Europe or just an armchair traveler, the surprising and extraordinary stories in Lingo will forever change the way you think about the continent, and may even make you want to learn a new language. Lingo spins the reader on a whirlwind tour of sixty European languages and dialects, sharing quirky moments from their histories and exploring their commonalities and differences. Most European languages are descended from a single ancestor, a language not unlike Sanskrit known as Proto-Indo-European (or PIE for short), but the continent's ever-changing borders and cultures have given rise to a linguistic and cultural diversity that is too often forgotten in discussions of Europe as a political entity. Lingo takes us into today's remote mountain villages of Switzerland, where Romansh is still the lingua franca, to formerly Soviet Belarus, a country whose language was Russified by the Bolsheviks, to Sweden, where up until the 1960s polite speaking conventions required that one never use the word "you" in conversation, leading to tiptoeing questions of the form: "Would herr generaldirektr Rexed like a biscuit?" Spanning six millenia and sixty languages in bite-size chapters, Lingo is a hilarious and highly edifying exploration of how Europe speaks.
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catsuit_mango
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When you love languages and you read a book by a linguist, you start to need 3 different highlighting colours for different informations... I can see myself becoming even more of a geek ;)

6 likes1 stack add
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Pinta
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Pickpick

Snippets on sixty European languages, like mini-portraits. Closest to root language PIE (Proto-Indo-European), 200 generations of little alteration? Lithuanian. Smallest language w/ Nobel Lit Prize winner? Icelandic. Effects of geography, trade, warfare, intentional language preservation. Belarusian: Cyrillic or Roman alphabet? Would love a similar easy-read on Asian & African language families. 2014

P101 “A language is a dialect with an army.”

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Lcsmcat
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Pickpick

Today is the first really cold day we‘ve had this fall, so I took advantage of it to finish this book by the Fire with a mug of tea. Entertaining as well as informative, Dorren gives a taste of several languages, offers up words he thinks English should borrow, and explains how various languages are related (or not). A pick for word nerds. #bookspin

50 likes3 stack adds
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Lcsmcat
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Horrible picture, because I was trying to be surreptitious as I read this over lunch. #bookspin

28 likes1 stack add
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barbwire
Pickpick

A good way to start off the reading year! Frustrating at first, as I was expecting a bit more depth about each language, but if that notion had come to fruition, the book would have to occupy multiple volumes! What “Lingo” ends up being is a sampler, much like a box of candy, with tasty examples of the quirks and appeals of each of Europe‘s 60 main languages. A fun overview with only a couple of conceits that don‘t quite hit their mark.

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barbwire

“Armenian is to the family of Indo-European languages what the platypus is to mammals.” p 268

Lcsmcat 😂 5y
1 like1 comment
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barbwire
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Ooooooh, this‘un‘s gonna make my nerdy little heart very happy! 🥰

Lcsmcat Sounds fascinating ! 5y
barbwire The first chapter is about Lithuanian: what‘s not to love? 5y
2 likes2 comments
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cli06

On dialects/grammar/ language evolution:
But today's errors tend to become tomorrow's correct usage. ..

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lisakoby
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Pickpick

I liked the structure - small essays in each language. This book is funny, interesting and informative and I liked dipping in and out instead of reading each essay one after the other.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#nonfiction #languagenerd

LeeRHarry This looks right up my alley! 6y
lisakoby @LeeRHarry I really liked it. The end of each essay has a word that doesn‘t exist in English but should. 😊 6y
25 likes1 stack add2 comments
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RaimeyGallant
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#OwnVoices: There's a history behind this one, and it's complex, but the intention is that authors who share the same (or close to) underrepresented identity as their main character can be more easily found/identified by literary agents, publishers, and readers. Links to more info in comments.

Repped or repped by: Typically found in Twitter profiles, it's shorthand to identify the name of the literary agent an author is represented by.

93 likes3 comments
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RaimeyGallant
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Here are today's terms!

WIP: Often preceded by a # around social media, this is when authors are discussing their Work In Progress.

CP: This is social media shorthand for Critique Partner, which is when authors critique the WIPs of their author friends, generally with heavy use of track changes/comments in MS Word.

And if you have a moment, new Litten @SEWhite could use some welcome messages over on their profile. :) #LitsyWelcomeWagon

cathysaid Ha! Knitters use WIP for Work in Progress as well. Usually many, many unfinished WIP projects. 🙄 7y
RaimeyGallant @cathysaid Good to know! 7y
See All 7 Comments
SaturnDoo Crocheters use WIP for work in progress and we also use UFO for unfinished objects 🤣🤣 7y
RaimeyGallant @SaturnDoo OMG, that's hilarious. I love it. 7y
SaturnDoo @RaimeyGallant lol we also use the term Frog or frogging which means we are unraveling or taking apart our WIP. So we may say I have an FO or frogged object 😂😂😂😂 7y
RaimeyGallant @SaturnDoo You guys have enviable jargon. 7y
98 likes7 comments
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TheBookDream
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Truth

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Mrshawaii
Pickpick

I love language. I love learning about how languages evolve. I love words. Lately, I've decided that I'm going to obtain a PhD in linguistics. Therefore, this book is the bomb.

Brooke_H A PhD in linguistics! Holy cow, lady! I am well impressed! 🎓 8y
4 likes1 comment