Book of the Day II

Guy Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention (Metropolitan Books)


“Language is mankind’s greatest invention – except of course, that it was never invented.” So begins linguist Guy Deutscher’s investigation into the evolution of language. No one believes that the Roman Senate sat down one day to design the complex system that is Latin grammar, and few believe, these days, in the literal truth of the story of the Tower of Babel. But then how did there come to be so many languages, and of such elaborate design? If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of “man throw spear,” how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced shades of meaning?

Drawing on recent, groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, The Unfolding of Language exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language is formed, evolves, and decays. It traces the emergence of linguistic complexity from an early evolutionary “Me Tarzan” stage all the way to the expressive power of languages today, with their intricate engineering which allows them to convey unrestrictedly complex thoughts and ideas.

Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, The Unfolding of Language shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings. From the written records of lost civilizations to the spoken idiom of today’s streets, we move nimbly from ancient Babylonian through medieval French to the English of the present. We marvel at the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, puzzle over single words that can express highly elaborate sentiments, such as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz (“you are one of those whom we couldn’t turn into a town-dweller”), [obviously the Word of the Day - F.G.]and learn how great changes of pronunciation may result from an age old human habit - simple laziness. Through the dramatic story of The Unfolding of Language, we discover the genius behind a uniquely human faculty.

Thanks to Paul Johnson and Forbes magazine for the heads up on both of today's books.

Mr. Johnson mentions both books in an article in the June 20, 2005 Forbes entitled "Thoughts on the Existence of God". Mr. Bird's book got him thinking about what Johnson refers to as the "first intervention of the metaphysical force or dominionin the process of history". (That's God's creation of everything ex nihilo to you and me.)

Johnson then turns to Mr. Deutscher's book and types this:

"Both the Hebrews and the Greeks, in different ways, believed there was something divine about 'the word,' or logos. The Greeks thought the word was the abstract principle of reason exhibited by an orderly universe. The Jews thought it the image of God, the beginning and origin of all things. It is possible, then, that the giving of the word to humanity was the second intervention of the metaphysical force or dominion in the process of history. That, I think, is the conclusion I have come to in these difficult matters. What will be the third, I wonder?"

By his reckoning the Big Bang is one, language is two, and golly, what is the third intervention going to be? Any good Catholic (and a fair number of awful ones) knows the intervention is The Word Made Flesh.

If Paul Johnson is Jewish, just forget the last comment.