How Language Began

The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention

De: Daniel L. Everett

Narrado por: Jonathan Yen

Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than 7,000 languages that exist today.

Although fossil hunters and linguists have brought us closer to unearthing the true origins of language, Daniel Everett's discoveries have upended the contemporary linguistic world, reverberating far beyond academic circles. While conducting field research in the Amazonian rainforest, Everett came across an age-old language nestled amongst a tribe of hunter-gatherers. Challenging long-standing principles in the field, Everett now builds on the theory that language was not intrinsic to our species. In order to truly understand its origins, a more interdisciplinary approach is needed - one that accounts as much for our propensity for culture as it does our biological makeup.

©2017 Daniel Everett (P)2018 Tantor

Eh

I've read better. I was pleasantly surprised in the narrator's correct pronunciation of all the phonemes.

Awesome

This book is brilliant. Many new ideas and concepts. The language is more than just words.

Flawed title, good book

As other reviewers have said, I was expecting something completely different. Upon first listening, I paused the book to go look up this crack pot. Turns out, he’s probably the most badass linguist around. Maybe a better title would be “How I lost everything through linguistics.” I’m dubious about some of his assertions, but generally found the book interesting.
Knowing a little background about the author might help make sense of some of his claims. His childhood was less than ideal. His mom died when he was young and he was raised by his alcoholic, cowboy dad. (A for real cowboy.) When he was a drug taking teenager, he met the daughter of a minister. They fell in love, he converted, went to a religious linguistics school, and they had babies. The church sent them to a remote village in the Amazon to convert some heathens. He learned the language, but the heathens weren’t interested in being converted. He lost his faith and his family, but discovered something cool that languages can do. He went to a real college and studied under Noam Chomsky. He got in a big fight with Chomsky and the linguistics community. (Chomsky pulled strings and had him banned from Brazil.) It took several years, and many independent studies, but he was proven right in the end.
If you like this story better than this book, go check out “Don’t Sleep, There’s Snakes.”
I know this is an overly long review, but knowing all this helped me enjoy the book more. I hope it can help you, too.

WORDS ARE TRANSLATORS OF MIND IMAGES(tm)

GOOD STUFF A GREAT DEAL OF FACT BUT MISSING THE REALITY OF WHAT LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION AND WORDS ARE. THERE ARE SO FOCUSED IN TH CONSTRUCTION OF "WORDS" AND SOUNDS IT ACTUALLY TOTALLY MISUNDERSTAND ANY CONVERSATION NEED AT LEAST THREE DICTINARIES IN ORDER TO HAVE IMPORTANT INTERACTION---YOUR PARTNERS (TO BE CLEAR WHAT THEY MEAN---YOURS TO BE CLEAR WHAT YOU MEAN---AND IF THERE IS DISGREEMENT A VALID (WEBSTERS) DCTIONARY TO HAVE THE CORRECT MEANING OF THE WORD--- ***WORDS ARE ONLY A TRANSLATOR OF YOUR MIND'S IMAGE(tm), AND IF YOUR LISTENER'S MI IS DIFFERENT IT BECOMES A TERRIBLE COVERSATION

Fascinating

This book changed how I think about language. The performance was very engaging, and I think a good job was done of presenting multiple sides to an argument though he always does so prove his own point. Over all I learned a ton and want to dig deeper into topics brought up.