The Power of Babel. A Natural History of Language.

Proof copy. 8vo, 327pp., notes, index. Printed wrappers.

Chronicles the origins and evolution of language from the appearance of the first language about 150,000 years ago in East Africa to the approximately six thousand language varieties of today. "McWhorter's arguments are sharply reasoned, refreshingly honest, and thoroughly original, and befitting a book on language, they are lucidly and elegantly expressed." –Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works