The Tower of Babel Revisited
Ann Taylor and Eva Zehentner

Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Pieter Bruegel the Elder – The Tower of Babel

• Wednesday 13 June 2018, 7.00PM to 8.00pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
  Book tickets
• The Lakehouse, Ron Cooke Hub, University of York (map|getting to campus)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

Why are there so many languages in the world? Why can’t we just all speak the same one? Join Ann Taylor and Eva Zehentner of the University of York for an interactive talk exploring how languages change over time and how this can lead to the emergence of new languages.

Ann and Eva will explain why - despite constant efforts by society to halt it - language change is inevitable, making any utopian idea of reversing Babel and creating a single world language unachievable.

About the speakers

Dr Ann Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science. Her main research area is variation and change in the history of English with a primary focus on syntax.

Dr Eva Zehentner is a Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science. She is interested in historical linguistics, particularly evolutionary linguistics.

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