The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter

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. 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. 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. One of the preeminent linguists of our time examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and taboo in order to understand what imbues curse. the central theory of this book is that human language started with gestures then later evolved into speech. That right-brained roguishness, the linguist John McWhorter tells us. 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. By John McWhorter Drop an f-bomb into conversation, and its detonation lights up the right hemisphere of your brain.

Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators.

The Story of Human Language by John McWhorter