The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language

by Keith Kahn-Harris

Overview

'Quite simply, and quite ridiculously, one of the funniest and most illuminating books I have ever read. I thought I was obsessive, but Keith Kahn-Harris is playing a very different sport. He really has discovered the whole world in an egg.' Simon Garfield
A thrilling journey deep into the heart of language, from a rather unexpected starting point.
Keith Kahn-Harris is a man obsessed with something seemingly trivial - the warning message found inside Kinder Surprise eggs:
WARNING, read and keep: Toy not suitable for children under 3 years. Small parts might be swallowed or inhaled.
On a tiny sheet of paper, this message is translated into dozens of languages - the world boiled down to a multilingual essence. Inspired by this, the author asks: what makes 'a language'? With the help of the international community of language geeks, he shows us what the message looks like in Ancient Sumerian, Zulu, Cornish, Klingon - and many more. Along the way he considers why Hungarian writing looks angry, how to make up your own language, and the meaning of the heavy metal umlaut.
Overturning the Babel myth, he argues that the messy diversity of language shouldn't be a source of conflict, but of collective wonder. This is a book about hope, a love letter to language.
'This is a wonderful book. A treasure trove of mind-expanding insights into language and humanity encased in a deliciously quirky, quixotic quest. I loved it. Warning: this will keep you reading.' - Ann Morgan, author of Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785787386
Publisher:	Icon Books, Ltd. UK
Publication date:	11/04/2021
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

KEITH KAHN-HARRIS is a sociologist and writer. He combines freelance writing with an academic teaching and research career. The Babel Message is his seventh book. His website is kahn-harris.org. He lives in London.

Table of Contents

WARNING, read and keep xiii

Introduction: A surprising obsession xix

Part 1 Set the controls for the heart of the Message

1 The Message 3

2 The Manuscript 13

Part 2 The multilingual Message

3 Learning to be superficial 31

4 The official version 57

5 The spoken Message 81

Part 3 Liberating the Message

6 Filling in the gaps 105

7 Diasporas and minorities 127

8 Despised tongues 141

9 The limits of liberation 157

10 What we have lost, what we have gained: The Message in time 173

11 Reviving the Message 193

12 A new Message 207

13 The incompetently translated Message 219

14 ALTABAŠ! Iltigoš ofiltatiš 229

Part 4 The Babel Message

15 One world, one Message? 247

16 Babel as Utopia 267

17 Ending at the beginning 275

Appendix: Warning! For true Manuscript fans only 281

Notes 291

Index of languages 301