From the book, in Chapter 1: “Languages frame, analyse and colour our views of the world. ‘I have three hearts’, claimed Ennius, an early master poet in Latin, on the strength of his fluency in Latin, Greek and Oscan.” – We couldn’t have said it better. Earlier in the chapter Mr. Ostler quotes perennial favorite Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” – Indeed.

Go on. Break those walls.

We could frame this scientifically as well. If it is true that bilingual/ multilingual persons have a few advantages over monolinguals, could the opposite be true? The “answer” so far comes from the realm of fiction – brilliant, life-changing fiction. Remember George Orwell’s “1984″ and the section on “Newspeak” – that part alone is worth the book’s price many times over. The idea was that reducing/ limiting language could by itself ultimately reduce human intelligence.