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  • SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human

  • By: Simon Prentis
  • Narrated by: Mike Fraser
  • Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)
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SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human

By: Simon Prentis
Narrated by: Mike Fraser
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Summary

What makes us human? Why are we the only animals who wear clothes, drive cars, trawl the internet, and fly helicopters on Mars? It’s all because we’ve learnt to talk, yet remarkably, we still don’t know how we did it.

Speech! suggests an answer that’s been hiding in plain sight - the simple yet radical shift that turned our analog grunts and shrieks into words. But, its consequences are far from simple: being able to share ideas through language was an evolutionary tipping point - it allowed us to link up our minds. Speech! traces our roller-coaster ride with language from hunter-gatherer to urban hipster: the epic tale of the struggle for knowledge against the false gods of culture, religion, and identity - as we teeter toward a destination we may still resist, but ultimately cannot escape...

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

©2021 Simon Prentis (P)2022 Simon Prentis

What listeners say about SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human

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fascinating

fantastic, well laid out and narrated book.
contemporary and factual.
well deserved a read, even more then once.

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Should be on every school syllabus!

This is a wittily written fascinating book about speech - and how it shapes us and we shape it. It answers so very many questions about humankind - well researched and easy to follow - never too ‘academic’ and often very amusing. I loved it!

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Fascinating book

A fascinating book which encompasses so much more than speech, which in itself is a far wider and more interesting subject than I had realised. As I listen, I am not only learning about language and the way it has developed but also about human communication, different cultures, geography, history and even food. This book is beautifully read by a narrator with a great speaking voice which is perfect for this thought provoking topic.

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