Babel No More (45 page)

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,
44
n

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,
107
n

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