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The Story of Human Language

Written by: John McWhorter, The Great Courses
Narrated by: John McWhorter
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Publisher's 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 My 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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Pretentious, Inaccurate, and Self-Absorbed.

I regret buying this. I'm a linguist and I was expecting so much more. Maybe if you don't know anything about Linguistics, this can sound interesting, but it is full of errors. Many of his "facts" about Spanish, which is my first language, are wrong, and the same is true for some things he said about French and Italian, which makes me think he's also wrong about the other languages he mentions. That made it very hard to take him seriously.

He also says ridiculous things in ever single one of the lectures. For instance, amost right at the beginning, while giving an example, he says he doesn't jump rope because he's a man and he is not very good at "female" activities. In another segment he's talking about Mongolia and says "not like anyone from Mongolia will listen to these lectures. Like, nothing ever happens in Mongolia."

He also speaks ill of other linguists a lot. He even goes as far as saying Noam Chomsky is not that relevant and says people should read his books because he's a best-selling author, but that's about it. Excuse me? Noam Chomsky is not just a best-selling author. He's the father of modern linguistics, ffs. The same can be said about his opinion on Sapir and Whorf.

This course is 18 hours of this guy's (biased) random thoughts, which, at least in the languages I do know well, are very mistaken.

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68 people found this helpful

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Fascinating!

I really enjoyed this course. It was insightful and illuminating. I learned so much about how languages changed over time and how that effects us today. My only quibble was the weird jabs and odd stereotyping the professor injected at surprising times. I suppose it was for humour's sake but it was a little off putting, especially since it would just come out of nowhere.

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12 people found this helpful

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History of language explained

this book really has everything you would expect in a discussion about the history of language. its too bad my friends dont find it as fascinating as i do, i became a random fact machine for a little while as i point out little nuances in the everyday words we speak. needless to say, they were not impressed. #Audible1

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7 people found this helpful

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Language explained

The presenter makes you want to eat up this course. His whit and humour draw the listener in and makes them want to keep learning. I wasn’t sure what this course would be about with regard to language evolution but after listening to the lecture I now feel I have a good understanding of how languages change over time and what impacts their present state. If you’re at all interested in language development this course will satisfy curiosity.

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3 people found this helpful

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informative

very well executed, funny, light and fluent to the extent that language can be interesting.
You need to be of curious mind in order to enjoy it. if you do, you will.

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3 people found this helpful

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Very very interesting

I really enjoyed this course. John McWhorter was engaging and found a way of making what could be a very dry subject into a very interesting series of lectures. His sense of humor is sometimes a little quirky and in a few occasions he said thinks that may be perceived as politically incorrect but this is a minor point. I learned a lot in this course and hope to get a chance to find another course by Dr McWhorter in the future.

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2 people found this helpful

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Astounding

Professor McWhorter is now my favorite TTC lecturer. He is funny and organized, and his knowledge of linguistics and culture is very wide. I highly recommend this lecture series.

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1 person found this helpful

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Loved it!

I learned so many interesting things and I now have a whole new perspective on language.

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I have learned so much !

I LOVED It ! It is a eye opener on how language comes to be and evolves. My native language is French but I understood 99,99%. I am also learning Spanish and knew that French shares words with both English and Spanish, and that it shows that languages influence each other.

But I had no idea how exactly it came to be. He explains in simple and comprehensive way the different mechanisms involved. He gives plenty of examples in a wide range of languages from alla around the world, not only English.

And his French accent is very good ;). The only little negative thing I could say is about his interpretation of the situation of English vs French in Quebec, Canada. I think he is misinformed. He gives an example of Houdini talking in English in a restaurant in Montreal and that is supposed to prove that English dominated the Province before 1974…Funny.

The truth is that If you stepped outside Montreal, the vast majority of people did not speak English at all. And even in Montreal, a lot of neighborhood had French only speakers, like my grand-mother (she was born in the countryside) My grand-father who was born in Montreal, spoke English and was the manager of a retail store. At one point, the store was bought by English owners. They wanted to fire all the French speaking staff, but my grand-father said he would leave if they did. They did fire all French staff and my grand-father left even if he had 3 children at that time. This shows another perspective on why Quebec needed to preserve French. It is not only about language preservation, but also about survival and a fair chance at opportunities and respect.

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Amazing!!

I would have never thought linguistics would be so fascinating but this lecture series was funny, eye-opening and a treat to listen to. It was fascinating to learn about the birth and death of language and how some language changes over time more then others.

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