The Babel Message

<p><b>'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</b><br><br><b>'There is a delicious humour implicit in every page . . . [the book] is filled with a sense of wonder, gazing at languages that neither the writer nor reader understands . . . <i>The Babel Message</i> was such fun that I even went out and bought a Kinder Surprise Egg.' - <i>Mark Forsyth, The Spectator</i></b><br><br><b>A thrilling journey deep into the heart of language, from a rather unexpected starting point.</b><br><br>Keith Kahn-Harris is a man obsessed with something seemingly trivial - the warning message found inside Kinder Surprise eggs:<br><br>WARNING, read and keep: Toy not suitable for children under 3 years. Small parts might be swallowed or inhaled.<br><br>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.<br><br>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.<br><br><b>'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 <i>Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer</i></b></p>