"The Study of Languages "is one of James Joyce's first essays and an early indication of his lifelong interest in philology, the focus of this volume of essays. The collection investigates three aspects of Joycean linguistics. The first set of essays studies the language of Joyce's later writings. In the second part, Joyce's own linguistic investigations are retraced. The third part examines the historical context of 'popular philology'.
This volume sheds light on the relationship between Joyce's later writings and his reading of studies by linguists such as Richard Paget, Charles Kay Ogden, Ivor Armstrong Richards, Fritz Mauthner, Otto Jespersen, Richard Chenevix Trench and Max Muller. Based on notebook research and textual genetics, these essays show how important the study of languages was to Joyce and how it played a crucial role in the development of his writings as it contributed and gave shape to the languages of "Ulysses" and "Finnegans Wake.""