Gaston Dorren is a journalist and linguist. His latest book is Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages (2015). He lives in Amersfoort in the Netherlands.
Author speaking here. Having read the comments and discussed them with colleagues, I think that the article has one possible flaw and one (minor) omission. The omission is that I haven’t mentioned the grammarians and phonologists of the pre-scientific era, first and foremost Pāṇini in India, but also scholars in China, Greece, Rome et cetera. Their work was certainly insightful and sometimes brilliant. I knew about these men, but as a result of how the article came about (as a study in silliness), I failed to mention them. The other thing is that apparently the natural sciences too attract many crackpots, even today. My impression that linguistics and historiography swarm with them more t...
Talking gibberish
Gaston DorrenAuthor speaking here. Having read the comments and discussed them with colleagues, I think that the article has one possible flaw and one (minor) omission. The omission is that I haven’t mentioned the grammarians and phonologists of the pre-scientific era, first and foremost Pāṇini in India, but also scholars in China, Greece, Rome et cetera. Their work was certainly insightful and sometimes brilliant. I knew about these men, but as a result of how the article came about (as a study in silliness), I failed to mention them. The other thing is that apparently the natural sciences too attract many crackpots, even today. My impression that linguistics and historiography swarm with them more t...