Customer Reviews
An important subject of human evolution and history - By: Luis Mansilla Miranda, 17 Aug 2007 
Fantastic!. I have had the opportunity to deal with people from different nationalities, from India, China/Taiwan, Great Britain/USA, France & Brasil & by obvious reasons you learn a little bit about those languages, noticing the marked pronunciations & accents, that makes you wonder about the nature of any specific language. This entertaining book provide insights about how language is created, evolve into others forms & sometimes how they cease to exist. There are reference to mostly all languages & it was fascinating to know little aspects of Africa's languages, the evolution of latin into the romance languages & the story of English.
Spanish is my first language & when comparing it with portuguese there is no much differencein the writing -- portuguese is like castilian but badly written (with all due respect) -- the major difference isin the phonetic, so everytime I need to speak to someone that speaks portuguese, we ended up speaking english to better understand each other. English is my second language & I think this language have some advantages compared to other languages, for example, most of the books written by the best scholars & scientists comein English soin my case it was important to know this languagein order to read this great book & other books that are only publishedin English. Give it a try!
An entertaining book on the history of languages - By: B. Coppin, 28 Nov 2006 
This is a pretty interesting, if fairly light, coverage of the subject of the way languages have evolved & emerged over the past few thousand years. It looks at the way languages seamlessly merge into each other over the course of hundreds of years (Latin into Italian, for example) as well as the mechanisms by which languages have changed. It concludes with a fairly light-hearted chapter which aims to predict what might happen to human languagesin the future - a chapter that nicely rounds off this entertaining & worthwhile book.
It's clearly not a book that covers anythingin any depth, but if you are looking for an introduction to historical linguistics that is writtenin a friendly, accessible style, then this is a good book to try.
Fascinating insight into language - By: Darren Simons, 05 Jun 2006 I discovered this book looking for something quite different but was immediately fascinated by the description offered.
In Speak, Janson provides a very brief insight into what languages are, how they have been formed, how they are related, & some thoughts on what the future may hold. Whilst Janson is clearly a leading academicin the field of linguistics, I found the book very easy to follow, very articulate & not surprisingly very well-informed.
Whilst there are some topics which many readers would already have some knowledge of (eg. Romance languages being derived from Latin), I was particularly impressedin the way Janson knitted the history of Europe over the past 2000 years with the history of language. It makes for a fascinating topic I am keen to learn more on.
The insight into language groups was equally fascinating with clever use of examples to prove that present-day languages which would seem quite independent arein fact inter-related.
Definitely recommended to anyone interestedin a good introductionin the history of languages.
Pocket guide to language - By: Budge Burgess, 16 Dec 2003 A neat little book packed with ideas, information, & intrigue. Janson looks at the development of language, investigating its emergence, divergence, & the history of languages changing, decaying, & being eroded. He draws evidence from Germanic, Indo European, Celtic, African, Pacific, American & other sources. Language is a pattern of communications, of conveyed significances & meanings, yet it is constantly changing. Janson explores this process of change & makes some suggestions for how change might continue into the future. An entertaining, intriguing & highly accessible account - stimulating, yet a real pleasure to read. It will fire the imagination of anyone who reads it, & hopefully encourage the reader to continue a study of the subject.
Entertaining introduction to language - By: Budge Burgess, 14 Dec 2003 Janson offers a highly accessible little pocket book introduction to the history of language. This is not a subject without controversy - there is still plenty of debate about how language emerges & the roles it playsin social structure & psychological structure. It doesn't answer the questions, of course. But a good read.
