It recently occurred to me that this book would be of interest to anybody interested in languages, and especially people who are interested in challenging themselves to learn a language, or perhaps multiple languages at once, especially Teutonic or Romance languages.
TBH, I feel rather guilty for having neglected to mention this book on this website. It is a real gem, written in the 1940’s, IIRC. Very readable and extremely informative about languages and about learning them.
My favourite part is the Language Museum in the appendix. If you want to challenge yourself to learn multiple Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian), you might want to browse the Romance language section of the Language Museum starting at page 589. There is a similar section for Teutonic languages.
I already own a hard copy of the book, but couldn’t seem to find it in my messy library, so I looked for a free copy online. I was able to borrow a copy for two weeks by joining the Internet Archive online (free) at archive.org. Then I searched for “Loom of Language” and quickly got to a page with a link that let me download the book at no charge.
When I first read Bodmer i assumed from his command of English and his typically British prejudices that he was a Brit of a certain era, generation, breeding and education (think ‘Tolkien’). Imagine my surprise when I discovered he was infact Swiss! Further more he proceeded the Great Chomsky (before whom all linguists bow) in his seat.
I’m not qualified to give an opinion on The Loom beyond saying i have heard it recommended by many linguists and language teachers whose opinion i respect and whom often learnt from it themselves at Uni.
I got hold of the book based on this thread, and I agree that it is pretty good.
I would emphasize something @tarnation already said. Much of it is geared towards learning a Romance or Germanic language). Especially, how to transfer vocabulary between languages by understanding etymology and sound shifts. The ideal student would be, for instance, somebody who knows Danish and wants to learn German
