Full Description
Editor Nicholas Wade and several award-winning "New York Times" journalists explore the mysterious roots of language in this book. Their coverage ranges from the efforts to chronicle ancient languages to the examination of fossil records to determine whether Neanderthals had language, and around the evolutionary bend to the study of chimpanzees and their ability to "talk" using sign boards to convey fear, hunger and their deceptive sense of humour. Chapters expound upon: "The History of Language"; "Archaeology and Language", which includes the findings in the Tarim Basin of China that reveal remains of Caucasian mummies dating from 2000 to 600 BC, and their written language; "Language in Other Species," in which the subsonic songs of female African elephants are detected travelling up to two miles through the ground to announce herd movement and mating possibilities, and the rich rhyming schemes of the seasonal songs of humpback whales are described; "Language and Learning"; "Language and the Brain"; and finally "Language and Society," which addresses contemporary concerns of our own multilingual nation.With detailed illustrations that appeared in the original articles, and insightful introductions to each chapter by Nicholas Wade, this book should be of interest anyone who has an interest in language and culture.
