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John McWhorter Describes Human Language's 20,000-Year Journey from Proto-Sumerian to Ebonics
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Manage episode 336435415 series 2421086
Content provided by Scott Rank, PhD and Scott Rank. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Scott Rank, PhD and Scott Rank or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Language not only defines humans as a species, placing us head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators, but it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries. How did different languages come to be? Why isn't there just a single language? How does a language change, and when it does, is that change indicative of decay or growth? How does a language become extinct?
In today's rebroadcast, I speak with John McWhorter, a linguist from Columbia University. He addresses these and other issues, such as how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today, everything from proto-Indo European to Ebonics English in the United States.
…
continue reading
In today's rebroadcast, I speak with John McWhorter, a linguist from Columbia University. He addresses these and other issues, such as how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today, everything from proto-Indo European to Ebonics English in the United States.
881 episodes
MP3•Episode home
Manage episode 336435415 series 2421086
Content provided by Scott Rank, PhD and Scott Rank. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Scott Rank, PhD and Scott Rank or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
Language not only defines humans as a species, placing us head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators, but it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries. How did different languages come to be? Why isn't there just a single language? How does a language change, and when it does, is that change indicative of decay or growth? How does a language become extinct?
In today's rebroadcast, I speak with John McWhorter, a linguist from Columbia University. He addresses these and other issues, such as how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today, everything from proto-Indo European to Ebonics English in the United States.
…
continue reading
In today's rebroadcast, I speak with John McWhorter, a linguist from Columbia University. He addresses these and other issues, such as how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today, everything from proto-Indo European to Ebonics English in the United States.
881 episodes
All episodes
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