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The Story of Human Language cover art

The Story of Human Language

By: John McWhorter,The Great Courses
Narrated by: John McWhorter
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Editor reviews

One of the leading linguistics lectures on audio, The Story of Human Language is narrated by well-known American Linguist and Commentator John McWhorter and is part of The Great Courses' Linguistics series. These lectures are an essential historical audiobook for Linguistics students and any people who are simply fascinated by the study of languages. Listeners’ questions on languages are covered entirely in these 36 lectures. Hear of the development of languages over time, how and why languages change and why some die out completely. This book helps to piece the puzzle together of understanding human identity. A truly fascinating listen. Available now from Audible.

Summary

Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators. But it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries, allowing us to ponder why different languages emerged, why there isn't simply a single language, how languages change over time and whether that's good or bad, and how languages die out and become extinct. Now you can explore all of these questions and more in an in-depth series of 36 lectures from one of America's leading linguists.

You'll be witness to the development of human language, learning how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today and gaining an appreciation of the remarkable ways in which one language sheds light on another.

The many fascinating topics you examine in these lectures include: the intriguing evidence that links a specific gene to the ability to use language; the specific mechanisms responsible for language change; language families and the heated debate over the first language; the phenomenon of language mixture; why some languages develop more grammatical machinery than they actually need; the famous hypothesis that says our grammars channel how we think; artificial languages, including Esperanto and sign languages for the deaf; and how word histories reflect the phenomena of language change and mixture worldwide.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2004 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2004 The Great Courses

What listeners say about The Story of Human Language

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Groans from Taiwan

Professor John McWhorter seems to have some cringeworthy misunderstandings regarding China and Taiwan. Firstly, he seems to think that Taiwan is a part of China, but it's actually a completely different country (canny big error there, mate). In addition, nobody in Taiwan would ever consider Taiwanese to be a dialect of Chinese - they're two different languages and that's how we talk about them here.

It would have taken less than a minute with anyone from or living in Taiwan to clarify these two extremely important (and obvious, surely?) points. Professor, did you check this information with anyone at all before delivering the lecture? What on earth were you reading during your research?

The issue is that when such an obvious blunder is repeated, it makes me worry about the rest of the course's content. For that reason, I can only recommend this course if you're willing to take it with a rather huge grain of salt.

Finally, a quote - "people who don't speak English generally live somewhere nobody who speaks English would ever go and they're not playing a larger role in society"... here we have a 'linguist' who has apparently never been to Spain, Japan, China, Italy, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, France... the list goes on. It's just another example of a ridiculous and obviously false statement.

A Baffled Listener
Taipei, Taiwan

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59 people found this helpful

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entertaining and interesting

I greatly enjoyed this. Professor McWhorter was lively in his delivery, throwing in odd quirky comments, such as likening languages to his cat, but keeping the pace of information going well.

I had thought I might want to alternate with listening to fiction, but this kept me engrossed while cycling and interested enough to swop over to listening to this rather than the radio while driving.

For those wanting to judge the level you could probably put it as being similar to the In Our Time programmes, although of course those are debate, whereas this is a series of many short lectures.

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29 people found this helpful

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  • 19-03-19

A valuable topic diminished by poor delivery.

Content comprehensive and interesting. Would have appreciated an attempt to explain reasons why gender, case, splittable verbs, tones, etc. arose over time / in the first place (if not evidential, then hypothetical). Repetitive examples of why these things changed and sometimes degraded to non use. But little attempt to explain their origin.
The content is very very USA based, often flippantly delivered and with surprising arrogance. The references to places, cities, countries and cultures are often done with disrespect and inaccuracies. Such a pity to have to endure poor delivery and arrogance for what was a rich (but incomplete) content. Hard to say if the new knowledge I’ve acquired pays the price for the toe-curling annoyance frequently felt when listening to this person puff up his ego at the cost of cultural sensitivity. Ah well. Thanks anyway.

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23 people found this helpful

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Fascinating Overview Of World Languages

This course is about languages: how they change over time, how they relate to each other and how they are created and disappear. If you are interested in how your language fits into the larger picture of the world's languages (all 6000 of them!) then this is a great place to start.

As the course is in English, the lecturer does return to English several times as it is a perfectly good example of how a language changes, absorbs new words and grammar, and has many different dialects. However, this course is certainly not Eurocentric. Many of the interesting examples the prof. is interested come from places very distant from Europe - for example a long discussion of the different creoles in Suriname is extremely interesting.

I feel I have learned more from this course than any of the other great courses. The facts discussed are all very interesting on their own but they are placed into a much larger systemic understanding of language change which makes them not only lone facts, but parts of a bigger whole. The course is superbly written, often witty and with analogies and metaphors that make even the most confusing aspect of language seem simple to grasp.

I can't really explain all of the topics discussed, but needless to say he covers the entire globe, the full range of bizarre grammars and tone systems (and clicks!), and explains very well how these could have arisen and how we can make sense of the mess that is human language.

I wholeheartedly recommend it!

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20 people found this helpful

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Very good

Only the Prof's slightly shaky grasp of English dialect detracted from the unalloyed listening pleasure for this Limey pedant. THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY IS SET IN KENT! As in south east of London. It's about as far from a northern English dialect as you can get without actually going to Fence. M

otherwise splendid

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17 people found this helpful

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Absolutely fascinating and very accessible

John McWhorter is a pleasure to listen to as he skillfully entertains and teaches the audience. While linguistics is a highly technical subject, he explains complex ideas in simple terms, and often with nice anecdotes to add colour. Highly recommended!

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10 people found this helpful

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So sad I finished it

Prof McWhorter is a genius, fun, eloquent and slightly crackers. In the best possible way.

I have to say that this course delivered so much more than I expected. Yes, it covered all sorts of fascinating facts about human language - and was not too Euro-centric, which was refreshing. A real eye-opener in how languages are related around the world, how they evolved - and are still evolving, and the quirks and oddities in our modern languages. If you are interested in language then this course will hit the spot.

Very informative and definitely worth listening to.

But Prof McWhorter is the real reason this course is one of the best I have ever listened to. At first, I was raising my eyebrows and thinking "Hmm, he is a bit erratic sounding, will I like this". But before long I was hooked. His obvious enthusiasm shines out and brings this all to life. I suspect he ad-libs a bit. Sometimes things get dropped in that made me laugh out loud. At one point I am sure I heard the recording crew laughing too. What's with the broccoli? And as for the dog on the Titanic - I had to pause to recompose myself.

Since finishing this one, I have purchased other courses by Prof McWhorter, as well as listening to him on YouTube and other sources. Totally a fan-girl now. Prof McWhorter, you rock. Thank you for 18 hours and 15 minutes of fascinating, informative, exciting human language history.

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9 people found this helpful

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Excellent run through of linguistics

Fantastic series on linguistics with a knowledgeable and witty lecturer. Highly recommended for anyone vaguely interested in the subject area

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Excellent

Loved this series. Excellent layout, and pace, and Prof McWhorter keeps it light hearted and entertaining

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Surprisingly well-constructed linguistics primer.

McWhorter's delivery is engaging, with a great use of example, historical context, and humour in his discussion of the linguistic topics he brings up.

As a linguistics student myself, I looked to this series to provide a more general overview of the historical study of the subject than is given in my university's curriculum. I was surprised at just how well the structure of this series works, and the order in which topics are introduced.

McWhorter stresses that lingusitic study goes beyond English and its close relatives, and gives examples from other language families also, but the core examples in most of the lectures in the series use Germanic and Romance examples, as these are more approachable to a general English-speaking audience, and easier to demonstrate to the layperson in this subject.

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4 people found this helpful