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> <p/><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> <p/><b>A thrilling journey deep into the heart of language from a rather unexpected starting point.</b> <p/>Keith Kahn-Harris is a man obsessed with something seemingly trivial - the warning message found inside Kinder Surprise eggs: <p/>WARNING read and keep: Toy not suitable for children under 3 years. Small parts might be swallowed or inhaled. <p/>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. <p/>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. <p/><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>