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 seven thousand 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.
Language began, Everett theorizes, with Homo Erectus, who catalyzed
words through culturally invented symbols. Early humans, as their
brains grew larger, incorporated gestures and voice intonations to
communicate, all of which built on each other for 60,000
generations. Tracing crucial shifts and developments across the
ages, Everett breaks down every component of speech, from
harnessing control of more than a hundred respiratory muscles in
the larynx and diaphragm, to mastering the use of the tongue.
Moving on from biology to execution, Everett explores why elements
such as grammar and storytelling are not nearly as critical to
language as one might suspect. In the book's final section,
Cultural Evolution of Language, Everett takes the ever-debated
"language gap" to task, delving into the chasm that separates "us"
from "the animals." He approaches the subject from various
disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, and archaeology,
to reveal that it was social complexity, as well as cultural,
physiological, and neurological superiority, that allowed
humans-with our clawless hands, breakable bones, and soft skin-to
become the apex predator. How Language Began ultimately explains
what we know, what we'd like to know, and what we likely never will
know about how humans went from mere communication to language.
Based on nearly forty years of fieldwork, Everett debunks long-held
theories by some of history's greatest thinkers, from Plato to
Chomsky. The result is an invaluable study of what makes us human.
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