The Story of Human Language

By: John McWhorter, The Great Courses

Narrated by: John McWhorter

Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins

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 Library section along with the audio.

©2004 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2004 The Great Courses

You'll Never Look at Languages the Same Way Again

This is a course that explained how languages are divided into multiple families, and how they evolve over time. It is as much a history course as it is a linguistics course. It looks at how languages are born, change, merge, and die away. It dedicates a large chunk of its time on dialects and explains their relation to the "proper" version of their language. It is a very rich course, possibly one of the best value courses I've come across. Here's a list of the lectures in this course:

1 What Is Language?
2 When Language Began
3 How Language Changes—Sound Change
4 How Language Changes—Building New Material
5 How Language Changes—Meaning and Order
6 How Language Changes—Many Directions
7 How Language Changes—Modern English
8 Language Families—Indo-European
9 Language Families—Tracing Indo-European
10 Language Families—Diversity of Structures
11 Language Families—Clues to the Past
12 The Case Against the World’s First Language
13 The Case For the World’s First Language
14 Dialects—Subspecies of Species
15 Dialects—Where Do You Draw the Line?
16 Dialects—Two Tongues in One Mouth
17 Dialects—The Standard as Token of the Past
18 Dialects—Spoken Style, Written Style
19 Dialects—The Fallacy of Blackboard Grammar
20 Language Mixture—Words
21 Language Mixture—Grammar
22 Language Mixture—Language Areas
23 Language Develops Beyond the Call of Duty
24 Language Interrupted
25 A New Perspective on the Story of English
26 Does Culture Drive Language Change?
27 Language Starts Over—Pidgins
28 Language Starts Over—Creoles I
29 Language Starts Over—Creoles II
30 Language Starts Over—Signs of the New
31 Language Starts Over—The Creole Continuum
32 What Is Black English?
33 Language Death—The Problem
34 Language Death—Prognosis
35 Artificial Languages
36 Finale—Master Class

Hanging on every word

After a couple of mediocre listens I was very pleased to discover this real treasure trove of an audiobook. I don’t suppose this would be a book for everyone. To enjoy it, you probably need to have a passion for and a curiosity about language, as I do.

At the beginning of this lecture series the narrator discusses the origins of language as it came into being from the mouths of our distant ancestors, and at this stage he mentions that, possibly, Neanderthals weren’t able to speak because of the positioning of their larynx compared to early humans. I was slightly concerned about this assertion because I know that a lot of recent genetic discoveries have been made about the Neanderthals and it is generally believed that Neanderthals probably did talk, and so I started to wonder if this lecture series was old and outdated. I listened to a similar Audible lecture series recently and was disappointed to discover that it was recorded in the 90s. So I was relieved when the narrator mentioned that this series dates from 2004. It isn't smack up-to-date, but it is reasonably current. He also mentions Steven Pinker’s brilliant book ‘The Language Instinct’ (available on Audible, and highly recommended), and I was relieved that this lecture series postdates Pinker’s influential work.

So the author explains lots of concepts about language from various perspectives, and he does this in a very entertaining and amusing style. I learnt lots of good stuff. There are far too many to list, but here is one example: We have a conception that languages in ‘undeveloped’ societies, such as those of isolated Amazon hunter-gatherers, would be grammatically simple, whilst a highly developed language, such as English, would be much more complex. But the opposite is true. A language left to ‘evolve’ in isolation amongst only a small number of speakers tends to become intricate and complicated. In contrast, languages such as English have at various times in the past been learned by dominant settlers (e.g. Vikings). When these Vikings acquired English they learned it as a second language (children are good at learning a second language, but adults tend to struggle with this), and in so doing they simplified it by speaking a kind of Pidgin English, removing most article genders, verb declensions and noun cases.

And because they were the dominant people at this time, their simplified reinterpretation of the English language replaced (or at least modified) the existing one. I love the idea of some big dumb Viking making a really bad job of picking up the local language, like a modern delinquent English tourist ordering lager on Holiday in Spain, and then, hundreds of years later, the effect of this is that English, the global mega-language, is more economical and straightforward thanks to the Viking simplifications.

The audiobook is chock-full of interesting points like the above (I find this stuff interesting, but I confess I am a word geek who enjoys crosswords and Scrabble). If you find language interesting then I think you will love it too.

Fascinating!

This was one of the most fascinating lecture series I've ever listened to. (But then I am a bit of a grammar geek.) Did you know that the "pas" in the "ne pas" of French comes from the word "step"? As in "No, I'm not going, not a single step"?

These lectures are thick with this kind of lore. They're also peppered with Professor McWhorter's personal anecdotes about the languages he's studied and the native speakers he's known. But it's not all trivia and party chat -- there are extensive sections on the variety of grammars, on written vs non-written languages, on creoles vs pidgins, and an interesting (if gloomy) assessment of attempts to revive dying languages.

I can't say this series changed my life, but it certainly has changed how I think about culture and communication.

John McWhorter is simply amazing!

Who would thought an audiobook on language could be so utterly compelling and interesting! I enjoyed the other Great Course I listened to, so I thought I would give this one a try. What a great decision on my part!

I know almost nothing about the subject nor was I ever interested in it, yet I was entertained for the entire 18 hours. What made this book so fascinating was Professor McWhorter's obvious love of his subject, Linguistics, and his wonderful, humorous, and dynamic personality. He is a pleasure to listen to--he makes a subject that could be very dry really come alive. I can certainly imagine listening to this book again.

McWhorter answers so many questions about the development of language. If you are at all like me, you may have never had any deep thoughts about language. I have only been frustrated by my difficulty in learning a foreign language. If you listen to this book, you will find out like I did just why it is so very difficult, if not impossible, to learn languages as an adult. You will learn, among other things, how languages develop and how they become extinct, why there isn't a universal language, what is the difference between a language, a dialect, and a creole. You will also be amazed at how few of the world's 6000 languages have been written down. You will most likely be very amused at the mostly unsuccessful attempts to create artificial languages, as McWhorter had such a fun time describing the musical language Solresol. No matter how boring my description sounds, McWhorter makes it all amusing and very interesting.

If you are wanting to break out of the escapism of fiction for a moment, I highly recommend this Great Course. I promise you will learn a great deal, you will be entertained, and maybe you will even be inspired to try another in the Great Courses series of audiobooks. I know I will.

How to Learn a lot in a very short time.

Prof. McWhorter's lectures were outstanding I learned so much that I didn't know about the origins, the structure and the evolution of human language. It really opened up a whole new world on a subject I didn't even realize I was all that interested in.

I found his continuous dismissal of the effect of culture on language a little ...um... questionable, but this is his take on it, and he resides in a field that doesn't have a lot of time for cultural criticism, so that's okay. I took it on board that this is one way into the subject, and one I didn't know a lot about.

I'll never listen to dialects or accents the same way again. I'll never bemoan the eclipse of certain words in my language, or the addition of new ones I find silly again. It's language growing and changing and without it, a language dies.

Wonderful. This is a keeper. I'll be listening to it again.

What a surprise!

Well this was a pleasant surprise! I was looking for something different from the kinds of books I had been reading, and never having tried one of these courses, decided to take a flyer. I was worried that this might be boring, like a college lecture, but I found every lecture to be informative and interesting, and the reader had just enough smart-aleck humor about him that the lectures were often funny. The series of lectures is quite long, but it's the sort of thing where one might take a break and listen to something else, then pick this one back up without getting lost; however, even though I planned to do that, I tore through these lectures like a page-turner mystery, and look forward to listening to them again.

After 650 hours of listening, this might be my favorite

This guy is witty, engaging, and perhaps most importantly, accessible. Even when venturing into the more esoteric topics in linguistics, his delivery and organization make it an utterly digestible, enjoyable experience. Bonus: not a single thing about his voice annoyed me, and I'm the kind of guy with plenty of pet peeves who often has to forsake lectures that I find positively fascinating due to the lecturer's articulation, tonality, cadence, etc...
Download this lecture. McWhorter is truly a skilled linguist and downright talented educator. You will not be disappointed.

Couldn't Stop Listening

If you could sum up The Story of Human Language in three words, what would they be?

Fascinating, informative, surprising

What did you like best about this story?

I love that this course explained so many aspects of so many languages from all over the world. The Story of Human Language covers everything rom the evolution of tonal languages in Eastern Asia to the development of creoles in the New World, and so much more.

What about Professor John McWhorter’s performance did you like?

Professor McWhorter lectures with passion, excitement and humour. His love of language and joy of teaching really shine through.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I couldn't turn this course off. I finished it in less than a week, and was sad when it was done.

Fine survey of language history

Any additional comments?

A good survey of the history of language. Perhaps a bit Euro-centric, but that seems to have been a deliberate choice to more readily engage listeners, many of whom are likely to have studied a Romance or Germanic language in high school or college.

Prof.McWhorter's delivery is natural and easy to follow, especially compared to some of the other Great Courses lectures I've listened to.

Quite a bit of overlap with his other lecture series, "Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage".

Disappointingly shallow, some harmful humor

I read (and listen to) a lot about linguistics and the history of language, so I wasn't expecting everything in this course to be new to me. However, I was still disappointed by how little new information or perspective I got out of it. I'm happy that so many people have enjoyed this and been introduced to linguistics, but if you have any linguistics background at all, I recommend skipping this one purely from a content perspective.

I was also not a fan of the lecturer, and I'm surprised most other reviews are so effusively positive about him. While many of his jokes and anecdotes are indeed funny, many others are (sometimes vaguely, sometimes overtly) racist, misogynistic, or cruel. One of his more obnoxious quirks is that he's uncomfortable saying the word "women", instead using euphemisms like "of the female persuasion" in a singsongy voice, as if he's going out of his way to be politically correct or something. Pro tip: the word "women" is not politically incorrect, but racist anecdotes are!

A much smaller complaint is that, in arguing against a prescriptive view of language, he ironically spends an inordinate amount of time arguing for what is "good" or "OK" in language, as opposed to presenting the evidence for what "is". I get that something must be said in an intro to linguistics to dispel the notion of a prescriptive set of rules that we can use to distinguish good language from bad language. But I feel like he's fighting fire with fire by arguing that what we've been told is "bad" is actually "good", rather than explicitly distinguishing between prescriptivism and descriptivism, and stating that we care about what "is". I also feel like this point is belabored well beyond what a reasonable person would need to be convinced, but I recognize I'm not the target audience for the argument.

Overall, this was an extremely disappointing listen considering my interest in the topic and the extremely positive reviews.

Groans from Taiwan

Professor John McWhorter seems to have some cringeworthy misunderstandings regarding China and Taiwan. Firstly, he seems to think that Taiwan is a part of China, but it's actually a completely different country (canny big error there, mate). In addition, nobody in Taiwan would ever consider Taiwanese to be a dialect of Chinese - they're two different languages and that's how we talk about them here.

It would have taken less than a minute with anyone from or living in Taiwan to clarify these two extremely important (and obvious, surely?) points. Professor, did you check this information with anyone at all before delivering the lecture? What on earth were you reading during your research?

The issue is that when such an obvious blunder is repeated, it makes me worry about the rest of the course's content. For that reason, I can only recommend this course if you're willing to take it with a rather huge grain of salt.

Finally, a quote - "people who don't speak English generally live somewhere nobody who speaks English would ever go and they're not playing a larger role in society"... here we have a 'linguist' who has apparently never been to Spain, Japan, China, Italy, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, France... the list goes on. It's just another example of a ridiculous and obviously false statement.

A Baffled Listener
Taipei, Taiwan

entertaining and interesting

I greatly enjoyed this. Professor McWhorter was lively in his delivery, throwing in odd quirky comments, such as likening languages to his cat, but keeping the pace of information going well.

I had thought I might want to alternate with listening to fiction, but this kept me engrossed while cycling and interested enough to swop over to listening to this rather than the radio while driving.

For those wanting to judge the level you could probably put it as being similar to the In Our Time programmes, although of course those are debate, whereas this is a series of many short lectures.

A valuable topic diminished by poor delivery.

Content comprehensive and interesting. Would have appreciated an attempt to explain reasons why gender, case, splittable verbs, tones, etc. arose over time / in the first place (if not evidential, then hypothetical). Repetitive examples of why these things changed and sometimes degraded to non use. But little attempt to explain their origin.
The content is very very USA based, often flippantly delivered and with surprising arrogance. The references to places, cities, countries and cultures are often done with disrespect and inaccuracies. Such a pity to have to endure poor delivery and arrogance for what was a rich (but incomplete) content. Hard to say if the new knowledge I’ve acquired pays the price for the toe-curling annoyance frequently felt when listening to this person puff up his ego at the cost of cultural sensitivity. Ah well. Thanks anyway.

Fascinating Overview Of World Languages

This course is about languages: how they change over time, how they relate to each other and how they are created and disappear. If you are interested in how your language fits into the larger picture of the world's languages (all 6000 of them!) then this is a great place to start.

As the course is in English, the lecturer does return to English several times as it is a perfectly good example of how a language changes, absorbs new words and grammar, and has many different dialects. However, this course is certainly not Eurocentric. Many of the interesting examples the prof. is interested come from places very distant from Europe - for example a long discussion of the different creoles in Suriname is extremely interesting.

I feel I have learned more from this course than any of the other great courses. The facts discussed are all very interesting on their own but they are placed into a much larger systemic understanding of language change which makes them not only lone facts, but parts of a bigger whole. The course is superbly written, often witty and with analogies and metaphors that make even the most confusing aspect of language seem simple to grasp.

I can't really explain all of the topics discussed, but needless to say he covers the entire globe, the full range of bizarre grammars and tone systems (and clicks!), and explains very well how these could have arisen and how we can make sense of the mess that is human language.

I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Very good

Only the Prof's slightly shaky grasp of English dialect detracted from the unalloyed listening pleasure for this Limey pedant. THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY IS SET IN KENT! As in south east of London. It's about as far from a northern English dialect as you can get without actually going to Fence. M

otherwise splendid

Absolutely fascinating and very accessible

John McWhorter is a pleasure to listen to as he skillfully entertains and teaches the audience. While linguistics is a highly technical subject, he explains complex ideas in simple terms, and often with nice anecdotes to add colour. Highly recommended!

So sad I finished it

Prof McWhorter is a genius, fun, eloquent and slightly crackers. In the best possible way.

I have to say that this course delivered so much more than I expected. Yes, it covered all sorts of fascinating facts about human language - and was not too Euro-centric, which was refreshing. A real eye-opener in how languages are related around the world, how they evolved - and are still evolving, and the quirks and oddities in our modern languages. If you are interested in language then this course will hit the spot.

Very informative and definitely worth listening to.

But Prof McWhorter is the real reason this course is one of the best I have ever listened to. At first, I was raising my eyebrows and thinking "Hmm, he is a bit erratic sounding, will I like this". But before long I was hooked. His obvious enthusiasm shines out and brings this all to life. I suspect he ad-libs a bit. Sometimes things get dropped in that made me laugh out loud. At one point I am sure I heard the recording crew laughing too. What's with the broccoli? And as for the dog on the Titanic - I had to pause to recompose myself.

Since finishing this one, I have purchased other courses by Prof McWhorter, as well as listening to him on YouTube and other sources. Totally a fan-girl now. Prof McWhorter, you rock. Thank you for 18 hours and 15 minutes of fascinating, informative, exciting human language history.

Excellent run through of linguistics

Fantastic series on linguistics with a knowledgeable and witty lecturer. Highly recommended for anyone vaguely interested in the subject area

Excellent

Loved this series. Excellent layout, and pace, and Prof McWhorter keeps it light hearted and entertaining

Surprisingly well-constructed linguistics primer.

McWhorter's delivery is engaging, with a great use of example, historical context, and humour in his discussion of the linguistic topics he brings up.

As a linguistics student myself, I looked to this series to provide a more general overview of the historical study of the subject than is given in my university's curriculum. I was surprised at just how well the structure of this series works, and the order in which topics are introduced.

McWhorter stresses that lingusitic study goes beyond English and its close relatives, and gives examples from other language families also, but the core examples in most of the lectures in the series use Germanic and Romance examples, as these are more approachable to a general English-speaking audience, and easier to demonstrate to the layperson in this subject.