I just finished a phenomenal book. Pure brain candy. It's Derek Bickerton's Bastard Tongues. I'm sorry about the language of the title, but it was his choice, not mine. The book is about Creole languages -- the somewhat mixed languages that people speak in places where different peoples have come together to form a new cultures. This book is incredible.
Bickerton, a professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii, studied the Creole languages of the Caribbean, Latin America, Hawaii, and the Indian Ocean, and tried to figure out why they're so similar. That may sound boring, but Bickerton learned about all of those languages by living among the people of those islands. This is his life story, so it's more like an adventure piece than a textbook. Plus, the man can write really well.
Go to the library, get the book. Trust me.
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