{"product_id":"lingo-around-europe-in-sixty-languages-paperback","title":"Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eGaston Dorren\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you're a frequent visitor to Europe or just an armchair traveler, the surprising and extraordinary stories in \u003ci\u003eLingo\u003c\/i\u003e will forever change the way you think about the continent, and may even make you want to learn a new language. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eLingo\u003c\/i\u003e spins the reader on a whirlwind tour of sixty European languages and dialects, sharing quirky moments from their histories and exploring their commonalities and differences. Most European languages are descended from a single ancestor, a language not unlike Sanskrit known as Proto-Indo-European (or PIE for short), but the continent's ever-changing borders and cultures have given rise to a linguistic and cultural diversity that is too often forgotten in discussions of Europe as a political entity. \u003ci\u003eLingo\u003c\/i\u003e takes us into today's remote mountain villages of Switzerland, where Romansh is still the lingua franca, to formerly Soviet Belarus, a country whose language was Russified by the Bolsheviks, to Sweden, where up until the 1960s polite speaking conventions required that one never use the word you in conversation, leading to tiptoeing questions of the form: Would herr generaldirektör Rexed like a biscuit? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSpanning six millenia and sixty languages in bite-size chapters, \u003ci\u003eLingo\u003c\/i\u003e is a hilarious and highly edifying exploration of how Europe speaks.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGaston Dorren\u003c\/b\u003e is a linguist, journalist, and polyglot. He speaks Dutch, Limburgish, English, German, French, and Spanish, and reads nine more languages. He is the author of two books in Dutch, and the creator of an app, The Language Lover's Guide to Europe. Dorren lives in the Netherlands.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1 x 8.1 x 5.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e December 13, 2016\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51757481460000,"sku":"9780802125712","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/b646c151962074ac46708b688e058da6.webp?v=1780104152","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/lingo-around-europe-in-sixty-languages-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}