The Secret Life of Language

Back cover:
Explore the fascinating world human language and discover, the hidden stories behind every word.

From Cantonese to Xhosa, from the origins of writing to
the invention of Elvish, from articulation to syntax,
the history and diversity of human communication
are brought to life in this fascinating book.

Beginning with the anatomy of speech and the early
development of verbal communication, The Secret Life
of Language goes on to unlock the secrets of the written
word, from Egyptian hieroglyphs to Japanese kanji, offering
a wide-ranging tour of the major languages of the world.

Simon Pulleyn fell in love with languages at school and has been studying them ever since. He read Latin and Ancient Greek at Oxford taking Indo-European Comparative Philology and General Linguistics as his special subject. His doctorate was on prayer in ancient Greek religion and made use of much comparative material from other languages and cultures. He taught Classics at Oxford for almost a decade. He has just completed a large book on Homer's Odyssey for Oxford University Press. He is also a Fellow of the Oxford Institute for Animal Ethics and has lectured and published on topics concerning animals in classical antiquity.