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Charles Berlitz

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Native Tongues Hardcover – January 21, 2009

by Charles Berlitz (Author)

4.1 20 ratings

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This book is a unique storehouse of surprising, thought provoking, fascinating and useful facts about human speech and the written word.

Print length

340 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Castle Books
Publication date

January 21, 2009
Dimensions

6.38 x 1.25 x 9.31 inches
ISBN-10

0785818278
ISBN-13

978-0785818274
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Castle Books (January 21, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 340 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0785818278
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0785818274
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.51 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.25 x 9.31 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,455,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #636 in Speech

Customer Reviews:
4.1 20 ratings

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4.1 out of 5

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Esteban X. Martínez

Amazing book

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2022

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This is an awesome book if you’re interested in the “evolution” of languages. Charles Berlitz was an incredibly intelligent guy and a true polyglot.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2017

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Excellent language insights. Some dated references based on experiences from the 1950s and 1960s.

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2008

This book was fun and interesting. I particularly enjoyed the attention "Native Tongues" paid to some Asian, African, and Native American languages. If you looking for a non-complicated book about human languages, then this is the right book for you.

3 people found this helpful

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curtisg

Full of errors

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2011

I just finished reading this book, and while I'm not an expert on every language that Charles Berlitz attempted to write about, it is very clear that Mr. Berlitz didn't even bother to have his book proofread. It was full of:

1) Typos ("person" in Zulu is "umuntu", not "uminto", page 184)
2) Incorrect translations ("excuse me" in Japanese is "sumimasen", not "moshi moshi", page 228)
3) Myths presented as fact (English was not selected over German as the official language of the United States by only one vote, pages 43-44 and ON THE COVER)
4) Dubious theories presented as facts (the most accepted theory for the origin of the word "gringo" is that it comes from the Spanish word "griego", or "greek". The claim that it comes from the song "Green Grow The Lilacs", page 66, is not even a well backed theory)
5) An obvious Eurocentric worldview (page 35, in most languages "sun" is a masculine? Maybe in most European languages, but not in most of the world's languages).

If you want to read interesting factoids about languages that may or may not be true, then this is the book for you.

10 people found this helpful

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Nataly Kelly

Full of interesting trivia for lovers of languages

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2007

"English was selected over German as the official language of the United States... by one vote."

"California is the name of the queen of the Amazons"

"The word 'mile' comes from the Latin 'mille', one thousand, referring to a thousand complete paces..."

For anyone interested in languages, especially, this book compiles a large amount of fascinating trivia - about 340 pages worth.

3 people found this helpful

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Bob

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2015

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Entertaining reading if you like to understand languages better.

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DogMama26

For the Language Lover

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2004

I found this book to be a fascinating treatise on world languages. Their origins and similarities are discussed, and there are some really fun facts about language. Did you know that "You're welcome" in Japanese sounds like "Don't Touch My Moustache" in English? A fun book for the language lover.

3 people found this helpful

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cd-555

A collection of facts

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2006

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This is a big collection of facts about different languages divided in 39 chapters with titles such as: How languages started; Alphabets; 1066 and the French invasion of English; Language incidents that changed history; Words of love and admiration; English vs American; What's in a name: places and peoples; The world's shortest phrasebook in the most languages (8 words and phrases in 26 languages).

The facts are very different from each other in type and length. Here's one of the shortest, just to illustrate how useless some of the facts are: "The Navaho word for 'train' means 'many wagons, no horse.'". The longest ones are half a page. One fact may, or may not be related to the previous one.

If you enjoy reading trivia that you probably won't remember for long, then you'll like this book, it really contains a lot of (useless) information in it's 300 pages.

3 people found this helpful

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CarlosKindle

Fastest delivery - less than 24 hours from order

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 29, 2013

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Fastest delivery - less than 24 hours from order
A great book for anyone interested in language. Any language. Should be made part of school curriculum.

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Native Tongues Hardcover – January 21, 2009

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