202 “Goddess English is all about emancipation”: http://blog.shashwati.com/2006/11/04/goddess-english-ii/.
202 assume that anyone working with computers is a Brahmin: From a study by Gail Omvedt, quoted in www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/05inter.htm.
202 “if I say the same things in English, I am heard and applauded”:www.rediff.com/news/2007/mar/05inter.htm.
203 until you see that he knows languages in four families: A. K. Srivastava et al., The Language Load (Mysore: CIIL, 1978).
207 successful interactions 89 percent of the time: Josep Colomer, “To Translate or to Learn Languages? An Evaluation of Social Efficiency,” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 121 (1996), 181–97.
209 “bilinguals know their languages to the level that they need them”: François Grosjean, www.francoisgrosjean.ch/myths_en.html.
211 we need is something brain-based: See, for example, Joan Kelly Hall, An Cheng, and Matthew T. Carlson, “Reconceptualizing Multicompetence as a Theory of Language Knowledge,” Applied Linguistics, 27:2 (2006).
Chapter 16
215 “trust their guts”: Madeline Ehrman and B. L. Leaver, “Cognitive Styles in the Service of Language Learning,” System, 31 (2003), 395.
215 not enough for them to call something “green”: Madeline Ehrman, “Personality and Good Language Learners,” in Carol Griffiths (ed.), Lessons from Good Language Learners (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 67.
215 They notice (which was a key skill): Madeline Ehrman, “Variations on a Theme: What Distinguishes Distinguished Learners?,” October 2006.
216 “functionally equivalent” to the well-educated native reader or listener: http://www.uscg.mil/hq/capemay/education/dlpt.asp.
221 “some bilinguals are dominant in one language”: www.francoisgrosjean.ch/myths_en.html.
222 based on a scale first developed by the US State Department’s Foreign Service Institute: www.govtilr.org/Skills/IRL%20Scale%20History.htm.
223 good correlation between the skills that someone reports and their actual skill level: D. M. Kenyon, V. Malabonga, and H. Carpenter, “Effects of Examinee Control on Examinee Attitudes and Performance on a Computerized Oral Proficiency Test,” paper presented at the 23rd Annual Language Testing Research Colloquium. Cited in D. M. Kenyon, V. Malabonga, and H. Carpenter, “Response to the Norris Commentary,” in Language Learning and Technology, 5:2 (2001) 106–10, http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num2/response/default.html.
223 5 is a “functionally native proficiency”: www.govtilr.org/Skills/ILRscale2.htm.
224 exploration of how people lose and relearn those languages: Kees de Bot and Saskia Stoessel, “In Search of Yesterday’s Words: Reactivating a Long-Forgotten Language,” Applied Linguistics, 21:3 (2000), 333–53.
227 suggests that items in memory begin to compete: K. Oberauer and R. Kliegl, “A Formal Model of Capacity Limits in Working Memory,” Journal of Memory and Language, 55 (2006), 601–26.
228 a psychiatric illness that affects 1 to 3 percent: L. Friedlander and M. Desrocher, “Neuroimaging Studies of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in Adults and Children,” Clinical Psychological Review 26 (2006), 32–49.
229 When someone systemizes, she (or, more likely, he): Simon Baron-Cohen, “The Extreme Male Brain Theory of Autism,” TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 6:6 (2002), 248.
230 higher than doctors, veterinarians, and biologists: Simon Baron-Cohen et al., “The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 31 (2001), 14.
230 has also found that autism occurs more frequently: Simon Baron-Cohen, “Does Autism Occur More Often in Families of Physicists, Engineers, and Mathematicians?,” Autism 2 (1998), 296–301.
230 relevant work on the obsessional interests of children with autism: Simon Baron-Cohen, “Obsessions in Children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome,” British Journal of Psychiatry, 175 (1999), 487.
Chapter 17
232 talented mimics had lower levels of activation in brain regions related to speech: Many of these results and others are discussed in Grzegorz Dogil and Susanne Reiterer (eds.), Language Talent and Brain Activity (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009).
232 anatomically more complex than those in non-phonetician brains: Narly Golestani, Cathy J. Rice, and Sophie K. Scott, “Born with an Ear for Dialects? Structural Plasticity in the Expert Phonetician Brain,” Journal of Neuroscience, 31:11 (2011), 4213–20. See also N. Golestani, T. Paus, and R. J. Zatorre, “Anatomical Correlates of Learning Novel Speech Sounds,” Neuron, 35 (2002), 997–1010; Narly Golestani and R. J. Zatorre, “Learning New Sounds of Speech: Reallocation of Neural Substrates,” Neuroimage 21 (2004), 494–506.
233 left insula . . . more strongly in bilinguals who have equal abilities in their two languages: Michael Chee et al., “Left Insula Activation: A Marker for Language Attainment in Bilinguals,” PNAS, 101:42 (2004), 15265–70.
233 “may correspond to vocabulary growth”: Ibid., 15269.
233 ability to automatically remember and accurately repeat nonsense words: Alan Baddeley, Working Memory, Thought, and Action (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007), 8.
233 can’t learn new foreign words: Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch, “Working Memory,” in G. A. Bower (ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, vol. 8 (New York: Academic Press, 1974), 17.
234 “genetic differences in neurotransmitter functions”: Caterina Breitenstein et al., “Hippocampus Activity Differentiates Good from Poor Learners of a Novel Lexicon,” NeuroImage, 25 (2005), 965.
235 called for more research into improving a variety of cognitive abilities on adults: Some of this research was reported in Cathy Doughty and Anita Bowles. “A Talent for Language.” The Next Wave, 18:1 (2009), 33–41.
235–236 suppress how strongly neurons fire: M. B. Iyer, U. Mattu, J. Grafman, et al., “Safety and Cognitive Effects of Frontal DC Brain Polarization in Healthy Individuals,” Neurology, 64 (2005), 872–75.
236 the positive effect had disappeared: Agnes Flöel, Nina Röser, Olesya Michka, et al., “Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Improves Language Learning,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20: 8 (2008), 1415–22.
236 abilities to generate words that started with a particular letter increased by 20 percent: Iyer et al., “Safety and Cognitive Effects.”
236 to increase people’s visual memory by 110 percent: R. P. Chi et al., “Visual Memory Improved by Non-invasive Brain Stimulation,” Brain Research, 1353 (2010), 168–75.
236 as does the odor of rosemary: M. Moss and J. Cook, “Aromas of Rosemary and Lavender Essential Oils Differentially Affect Cognition in Healthy Adults,” International Journal of Neuroscience, 113 (2003), 15.
236 two cups of coffee increases neuronal activity: F. Koppelstatter and B. Rubin, “Influence of Caffeine Excess on Activation Patterns in Verbal Working Memory,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, Chicago, 2005.
237 d-amphetamine and levodopa . . . learning by 20 percent in healthy subjects: Caterina Breitenstein et al., “D-amphetamine Boosts Language Learning Independent of Its Cardiovascular and Motor Arousing Effects,” Neuropsychopharmacology, 29 (2004), 1704–14.
241 “conducive to plasticity in a noninvasive but targeted manner”: Daphne Bavelier, Dennis M. Levi, Roger W. Li, et al., “Removing Brakes on Adult Brain Plasticity: From Molecular to Behavioral Interventions,” The Journal of Neuroscience, 30:45 (2010), 14968.
241 flow is “characterized by a deep sense of enjoyment”: Ibid.
241 “It would be ideal to endogenously recapitulate brain states”: Daphne Bavelier, Dennis M. Levi, Roger W. Li, et al., “Removing Brakes on Adult Brain Plasticity: From Molecular to Behavioral Interventions,” The Journal of Neuroscience, 30:45 (2010), 14964–71.
PART 5 ARRIVAL: The Hyperpolyglot of Flanders
Chapter 18
251 Seven were dead languages; in another seven he described his knowledge as superficial: Vandewalle has helpfully posted documents from the contest on his website, http://users.telenet.be/orientaal/oprichter.html.
Chapter 19
263 individuals’ skills could be explained by what they’d inherited genetically: Naomi P. Friedman et al., “Individual Differences in Executive Functions Are Almost Entirely Genetic in Origin,” Journal of Experimental Psychology, 137:2 (2008), 201–25.
263 not likely to transfer that skill to other areas: Torkel Klingberg, The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory (Neil Betteridge, trans.) (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2009), 120.
263 “Spend time tinkering with the language every day”: Kató Lomb, Polyglot: How I Learn Languages (ádám Szegi and Kornelia DeKorne, trans.; Scott Alkire, ed.) (Berkeley, CA: TESL-EJ, 2008), 159.
264 the same part of the brain: Agnes Flöel, T. Ellger, Caterina Breitenstein, and S. Knecht, “Language Perception Activates the Hand Motor Cortex: Implications for Motor Theories of Speech Perception,” European Journal of Neuroscience, 18:3 (2003), 704–8, M. Gentilucci and R. Dalla Volta, “Spoken Language and Arm Gestures Are Controlled by the Same Motor Control System,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61:6 (2008), 944–57.
267 Pablo Tac, a young student: Tac also described what happened to his people during the Conquest in a book, Indian Life and Customs at Mission San Luis Rey. He died in Rome at the age of nineteen.
267 “secret process, if any, which he employed”: Charles Russell, The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, with an Introductory Memoir of Eminent Linguists, Ancient and Modern (London: Longman, Brown, and Co., 1858), 475.
INDEX
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Page numbers beginning with 277 refer to end notes.
Abadzi, Helen, 132–37, 132, 139, 141–43, 169, 175, 212, 227, 236, 254, 256, 261–63
Abadzi, Theodore, 136
Académie Française, 208
Accademia Poliglotta, 137–38, 267
accents, 5, 8, 11, 33, 84, 238
American, 261
British, 21, 204
Colombian altiplano, 19–20
native, 123
pure, 19
thick, 18, 232
ADHD, 214
adrenaline, 237
Africa, 3
sub-Saharan, 85
tribal and village languages of, 21
Afrikaans language, 118, 218, 248
Afroasiatic language family, 44n
Aikhenvald, Alexandra, 190
Air Force, U.S., 176
air traffic controllers, 54–55, 281
Albanian language, 4, 31, 43
Algonquin language, 31, 40–41, 43, 60, 210, 268
Alliance Française, 203
alphabets, 30, 34, 39, 44
Greek, 31
al-Qaeda, 71
“Amarinna” language, 43
Amazon basin, 189–90
American Airlines Boeing 757 jet crash (1995), 55, 281
American Antiquarian Society, 75
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), 222–23
American University, Beirut, 106
Americas, indigenous languages of, 31, 35, 40–41, 42, 43, 76, 82, 148, 219
Amharic language, 4, 31
Amunts, Katrin, 171–74, 177–79, 212, 287, 289
Angolana language, 30
Angolese language, 43
Annamalai, E., 208–9
aphasia, 156
Arabic language, 3, 4, 8, 30, 31, 39, 42, 43, 45, 47, 58, 60, 61, 152–53
study and teaching of, 9, 33, 35, 106, 131, 161, 162
Arabic numbers, 117
Aramaic language, 150
Ardaschir, King of Persia, 107n
Ardaschir, see Arguelles, Alexander
Arguelles, Alexander, 107–8, 110–27, 116, 129–31, 136, 137, 140–43, 152, 166, 169, 175–76, 212, 226, 231, 233, 239, 261–62, 264, 284
Arguelles, Ivan, 118–21, 166, 210
Arguelles, Joseph, 118–19
Arguelles, Max, 113, 119–20
Aristotle University, 94
Armenian language, 30, 57
ancient, 43, 151
modern, 43
Armstrong, Thomas, 214–15
Army, U.S., 163
Art and Science of Learning Languages, The (Gunnemark and Gethin), 99–101, 226, 283
Asperger’s syndrome, 175, 229, 230, 291
Assimil, 239, 275–76
Assyrian language, 154
Athens, University of, 153
atherosclerosis, 154
attention spans, 33
Australia, 80
aboriginal language of, 81, 82
autism spectrum disorders, 95, 165, 167, 175, 214, 229–30, 288, 291–92
aviation industry, 54–55
Babylonian language, 154
Bahrick, Harry, 134
Bangalore School of English, 204
Bangladesh, 85n
Baron-Cohen, Simon, 229–30, 239, 291–92
Basque language, 4, 31, 43
Bavelier, Daphne, 241, 293
Bawa, Zainab, 203
BBC, 202, 255
Béarnais language, 47n
Beijing, 8, 20, 149, 153
Bel Canto (Patchett), 21–22
Belgium, 247
multilingualism of, 25–26
Bengali language, 119n, 194, 203
Berber language, 95
Bible, 34, 79
translations of, 58–59, 60
Bilingual Brain, The: Neuropsychological and Neurolinguistic Aspects of Bilingualism (Obler and Albert), 162
bilingualism, 13, 33, 49, 51, 63, 140, 180, 190, 226
Bimbarra language, 42
Bohemian language, 31, 43, 75n
Bologna, 3, 16, 17, 19, 21, 27–38, 56–62, 134, 265–69
Allied bombing of, 28
Archiginnasio public library of, 27–32, 52, 61–62, 267–69, 278
as linguistic cross roads, 34–38, 58, 242
Bologna, University of, 3, 35
library of, 57–60
Bolognese language, 4, 31, 37, 124
Boothe, Ryan, 125–26
Borges, Jorge Luis, 125
Borrow, George Henry, 228
Boucheron, Carlo, 6
brain-as-globe metaphor, 157–60, 171, 173, 232, 233, 236
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), 237
brain imaging technologies, 14, 157, 159, 232, 233
brains, 124–25
anterior cingulum of, 236
of babies, 69
biochemistry of, 237, 241, 262
Broca’s area of, 156–57, 160, 171–74, 238, 287, 289
cognitive aging and disorder in, 140, 162
development of, 229
disease and damage of, 73–74, 94–95, 113, 139, 156, 157, 161, 171, 174, 233–34
executive function of, 139, 263, 285
frontal lobe of, 236
as globe, see brain-as-globe
hippocampus of, 234, 237, 292
of hyperpolyglots, 14, 15, 28, 140, 142–43, 154, 155, 170–75, 212, 231–43
insula of, 233
language as separate function of, 97–98
language centers in, 24, 69, 74, 139, 156–60, 171–74, 178, 238
limitations of, 10
neural circuits of, 33, 86, 139, 140, 143, 155, 158–60, 162, 171–74, 205–6, 233–34, 236–38, 241–43, 262
oxygen use in, 159, 178, 179
plasticity of, 8, 9, 14, 33, 72, 85–86, 122, 158, 180–81, 237, 241, 243, 262–63, 282–83
posterior parietal cortex of, 139
prefrontal cortex of, 139, 155, 157
preservation and analysis of, 154–56, 160, 161, 171–75, 177–80
primary auditory cortex (Heschl’s gyrus) of, 232–33, 260
right and left hemispheres of, 157–58, 165–66, 173–74, 229,
238
streams of, 157–59, 287
study of, 41, 154–60, 170–75
Wernicke’s area of, 157, 160, 238, 289
Brazil, 9, 10, 106, 109
Breitenstein, Caterina, 237, 292, 293
Briareus, 4
British Sign language (BSL), 97
Broca, Paul, 156–57, 287
Brodmann, Korbinian, 173
Bruch, Charles Philip Christian, 79–80
Brussels, 25, 136, 166, 223, 247
Bulgarian language, 43, 104, 132
Bunsen, Baron, 5
Bunyan, Paul, 75
Burmese language, 31, 42
Burritt, Elihu, 74–78, 76, 77, 104, 141–42, 228, 281–82
Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 47, 104, 280
Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 4–5, 58
California, University of:
at Berkeley, 21, 120, 129
at Irvine, 158
at Los Angeles, 160, 237
“Californian” language, 31, 43
calques, 96–97, 99
Campbell, George, 73, 281
Cansdale, Graham, 166–67, 222–25, 224, 225, 242, 261, 263, 264
Caronni, Felix, 3
cartoons, 53
Catalan language, 39, 119
catechism, 31
Catherine, Saint, 32
Cécile and Oskar Vogt Institute of Brain Research, 170
cell phones, 8
Celtic languages, 75, 76, 218
Central Institute for Indian Languages, 205
Chaldaic language, 75
Chaldean language, 4, 43, 76
Chee, Michael, 233, 292
Chicago, University of, 108, 208
Chihuahua, 87–89
child prodigies, 79, 282
China, 8, 44, 55, 147, 149–53
value of English language in, 9
Chinese language, 4, 30, 31, 35, 41, 43, 44–45, 57, 120, 123, 147–48
Cantonese, 106, 109
characters of, 39, 113, 117, 150
Mandarin, 9, 10, 20, 52, 81, 97, 106–7, 109, 123, 124, 149, 151, 251
study of, 9, 110, 149, 174
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 164
Chippewa language, 42
Christianity, 150
Christopher, 94–99, 124, 141, 162–65, 169, 210
language abilities of, 69, 94–96, 98–99, 134, 175, 227–28
mental impairment of, 69, 94–96, 97, 162
Cispadane Republic, 35
Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, 149
Babel No More Page 32