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Language Families of the World

Written by: John McWhorter,The Great Courses
Narrated by: John McWhorter
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Publisher's Summary

Language, in its seemingly infinite varieties, tells us who we are and where we come from. Many linguists believe that all of the world’s languages - over 7,000 currently - emerged from a single prehistoric source. While experts have not yet been able to reproduce this proto-language, most of the world’s current languages can be traced to various language families that have branched and divided, spreading across the globe with migrating humans and evolving over time.

The ability to communicate with the spoken word is so prevelant that we have yet to discover a civilization that does not speak. The fitful preservation of human remains throughout history has made tracing the ultimate origin of sophisticated human cultures difficult, but it is assumed that language is at least 300,000 years old. With so much time comes immense change - including the development of the written word. There’s no doubt that over centuries, numerous languages have been born, thrived, and died. So how did we get here, and how do we trace the many language branches back to the root?

In Language Families of the World, Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University takes you back through time and around the world, following the linguistic trails left by generations of humans that lead back to the beginnings of language. Utilizing historical theories and cutting-edge research, these 34 astonishing lectures will introduce you to the major language families of the world and their many offspring, including a variety of languages that are no longer spoken but provide vital links between past and present.

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

©2019 The Great Courses (P)2019 The Teaching Company, LLC

What listeners say about Language Families of the World

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Lecturer is quite a character!

I actually liked his inside jokes and personal references - although a bit off sidetrack at times but nevertheless it made listening to his lectures fun.

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8 people found this helpful

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Interesting lecture series

The lecturer was engrossing. His passion for the subject is obvious and he manages to keep what could be very dry material interesting and fun. Worth the listen.

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7 people found this helpful

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Everything you could hope for

I loved this, you risk bringing up everything you learn too many times with friends and family (who you are secretly trying to seduce into listening to it too so you can share your delight), but it's so worth it. I know I will listen to this many times as my brain fights to retain so many new and fascinating things. The prof is an utter delight too.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • Can
  • 2020-06-29

5-stars with a catch

First and foremost this is absolutely an amazing resource for language enthusiasts. If you are into the topic, go ahead and start enjoying it.

The catch is that this is such massive topic and the series contains incomplete info which can lead to inaccurate conclusions about the function/use of Ottoman Turkish in its era. Ottoman Turkish being a hybrid language of was never spoken by the population. The way it’s presented in this book sounds like people in Turkey used to speak Ottoman Turkish. The truth is it was only used in the palace and among The Istanbul elite.

Also sekiz means eight, not seven.

Overall, this is a great audiobook. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who likes the topic.

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4 people found this helpful

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Sujet et orateur parfaits

C'est avec un peu de tristesse que j'ai terminé d'écouter "Language families of the world". J'ai appris une quantité astronomique de choses, j'ai ri et ai été intéressée par tous les chapitres. Je dois admettre que c'est seulement le deuxième linguiste que j'aime (Henriette Walter étant la première).

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4 people found this helpful

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Loved the course

It was a pleasure to listen to someone so very knowledgeable and excited about the subject. Today I know MUCH more than I knew before I listened, thanx.

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2 people found this helpful

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Prof McWhorter is fantastic!

I am so happy I bought this Course. I have little background in languages but a lot of interest. The content itself is interesting BUT it's the Professor that absolutely makes this Course.

I have laughed out loud often at his quips. He's interesting and engaging, the stories to elaborate the examples are fantastic, and I thoroughly enjoyed every time he did an impression. I can only imagine how fantastic his university classes must be.

if you have any interest in how languages have evolved, I absolutely recommend this as a fun way to learn.

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1 person found this helpful

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When you take toast and make pie ... that is this

A book like this should be about as dry as toast and tasteless as a pack of saltine crackers. Instead the narrator is amazing, a dash of this, an anecdote here, a personal reference here and you have a collage course if presented in real life would be full, bubbling and engaging every night. Instead this book has baked it into an audio pie. I wish every lecturer was like this. As for the subject, if you like knowing how the world got to be the way it is, in the terms of languages this book is for you!!!

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Very informative

I found this course to be interesting and I learned a lot about the world’s language families although it was a bit overwhelming at times. The lectures were about 30 minutes long and I found this to be useful.

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entertaining and eye opening!

learned a lot and helped me put human history in perspective. languages are a lot older than current culture

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  • Mark
  • 2019-02-10

Entertaining

Anyone familiar with Professor McWhorter's work will enjoy this course. It's not the most structured lecture series you'll ever find, but it sparkles with McWhorter's trademark riffing, digressions, anecdotes, silly voices and pop culture references. Think of it as 16 hours of the most accomplished and entertaining linguist imaginable summarizing everything he knows about language families.

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88 people found this helpful

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  • Privet
  • 2019-04-20

Exactly what I was hoping and searching for

again, John McWortet delivers a great performance. The book, or rather the lecture structure, is extremely well put together. The performance, as always, complicated enough to let you know that he's an expert, but simple and humorous enough to let you actually learn and cause you to actually want to learn. I have been looking for a nice exposition of the language families of the world, and this did that perfectly. It also open my eyes to different ways of thinking, different ways of communicating, and different ways of being a human being. Anything that increases my understanding and tolerance like that, while also being a book that I've looked for since I was about 4 years old, is very good.

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87 people found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2019-03-09

Superb

Overviewing the language families of the world is a massive undertaking, but McWhorter pulls it off well! He breaks up the lectures on specific families with tidbits about linguistics in general. Individual lectures are both entertaining and informative. Highly recommend!

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59 people found this helpful

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  • Tim
  • 2019-02-12

Great update!

While using some of the same lessons from his previous course, the story of human language, Dr. Mcworter still manages to be extremely engaging to the language curiosity in all of us. If you’ve listen to the previous “story of human language”, this will be as enjoyable and more so if you want to dig down into what exactly makes all these language families so very different.

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42 people found this helpful

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  • F. Stuart Leeds
  • 2019-04-19

Masterful as Ever - and Then Some

John McWhorter is (in a turn of phrase he might appreciate)...kinda sui generis. Some teachers are great performers. And some performers are great teachers. McWhorter is all of the above. His courses are so much fun, and so full of illuminating information. My only complaint is that they are of finite length, and that they eventually have to come to their ends. As for this particular course - well. What a whirlwind survey of the world’s languages. And what rare form McWhorter is in, as he covers them all with panache and brio. My only faint plaint is that, as an unrepentant popularizer, he sometimes tries a little too hard to keep things simple, if not a little dumbed-down. These might not be 101 courses, but they’re not 301s, either. I think we can handle a little more technical jargon, and a little deeper dive into the linguist’s toolkit. But these are trifling kvetches. This course is simply fabulous, and you just need to 1. Get it, 2. Listen to it, and 3. Lather-rinse-repeat with the entire McWhorter catalogue.

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  • Amaze
  • 2019-05-13

Marred by the lecturer's personality disorder

While I am not a linguist, it appears that the lecturer, J McWhorter, has great scholarly range. He seems to deliver on the title of the course, viz, language families of the world. Unfortunately, his main topic is himself and linguistics is merely the vehicle for his narcissistic antics. This guy is so immature and self-absorbed that even if he were a 13 year old he'd be a candidate for 5 day a week therapy. In an adult...it's highly off-putting, and rather sad.
Whenever he quotes from another scholar he puts on a goofy voice that is so distracting it's impossible to follow what is being said. It's as if McWhorter can't bear to have anyone's voice, other than his own, be understood. This is particularly objectionable when he does a goofy-voice-quote from William Jones, the founder of historical linguistics. This is like Donald Duck making fun of George Washington.
He frequently alludes to his encounters with women, as though he's just discovered sex and thinks the rest of us urgently need to know. In an adolescent this would be forgivable, but not in a middle-aged man. And no, I'm not a prude. But I bought this title to learn about linguistics, not about the sex life of the lecturer.
It seems that every other sentence is a joke, a dopey voice, or a non-sequitor.
Given the good material in the lecture series I'm tempted to re-listen. But the lecturer's antics are so distracting and offensive I'll probably move on to another audio book.

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  • MAdison
  • 2019-04-04

Great topic, but quite unoriganized

Speaker is clearly knowledgeable about the topic with good sense of humor. I found two key issues with this course:

- While languages were developed across historical/cultural events, the course makes only cursory (and out of sequence) reference to historical development associated with such language evolution. Also, coverage of topic is very unorganized and unbalanced

- Teacher tries to pronounce a number of words/sounds/sentences in so many languages. I know one of those languages and his pronunciation was way off to a point that it was not understandable. It is unrealistic to expect that one person that can utter words/sounds in so many languages. It would be much more useful if he used actual sound clips by native speakers (for existing languages) or someone with better skills for extinct ones (I recall he only used a couple of samples by others)

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25 people found this helpful

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  • Maev
  • 2019-06-22

Best of McWhorter

This is the best audio course you'll find by McWhorter on audible. Extremely interesting and McWhorter's quirky presentation makes this one a must have if you like linguistics.

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18 people found this helpful

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  • Alwyn Vorster
  • 2019-05-11

Extremely interesting

If languages mixed with a bit of history is your kind of thing, you'll enjoy this. Funny and charismatic professor too.

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17 people found this helpful

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  • Ben
  • 2019-03-01

Loved It!!!

The most enjoyable Great Courses lecture so far. Professor McWhorter is outstanding. I highly recommend this series.

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17 people found this helpful