How long does it take to read How Language Works?
how babies babble, words change meaning, and languages live or die
How Language Works by David Crystal takes about 9 hours 17 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 9 hours 17 minutes
A week or two of reading
First published 2005. 506 pages, about 139,150 words.
19 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 15 hours 28 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 9 hours 17 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 5 hours 48 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In the author's own words, "How Language Works is not about music, cookery, or sex. But it is about how we talk about music, cookery, and sex—or, indeed, anything at all." Language is so fundamental to everyday life that we take it for granted. But as David Crystal makes clear in this work of unprecedented scope, language is an extremely powerful tool that defines the human species. Crystal offers general readers a personal tour of the intricate workings of language. He moves effortlessly from big subjects like the origins of languages, how children learn to speak, and how conversation works to subtle but revealing points such as how email differs from both speech and writing in important ways, how language reveals a person's social status, and how we decide whether a word is rude or polite. Broad and deep, but with a light and witty touch, How Language Works is the ultimate layman's guide to how we communicate with one another.
Subjects: Linguistics, Education - philosophy & social aspects, Applied linguistics
