The Power of Babel: The Natural History of Language by John McWhorter, Times Books, 2002
By Sheila Orysiek
SAN DIEGO — From the moment of birth a child is likely to be surrounded by the sound of human voices. It doesn’t take long for the child to decode what at first may seem like chaotic babel into organized transmittal of information – language. It is the one skill which is acquired by the child without instruction from adults.
John McWhorter states that human speech is thought to have begun over 100,000 years ago with one proto-language from which thousands of languages branched off with approximately 6000 surviving today. He explores this history and but never explains why there would be only one proto-language. Is it not just as likely that there may have been several groups of humans each speaking a different language? Neither does he explain how the approximate date for the onset of language is ascertained.
How do languages come to be? How do they change and why do they die? What is pidgin and what role does it play in creating language? Can linguists detect the echo of the original proto-language of any family (Indo-European, Afroasiatic, etc.) group? McWhorter disagrees with those who think that there are existing vocabulary descendants of one original language; assuming one accepts that there was a true proto-language which gave birth to all the thousands of languages that have ever existed.
The author emphasizes the tremendous diversity of how humans communicate through speech. Some languages are loaded with seemingly needless complexities such as adding gender to inanimate objects as in French: la plume (the pen – feminine) – le pied (the foot – masculine). Other languages get along very well without this feature. Also, the more isolated the speakers, the more complex the language which seems counterintuitive.
Some languages are “tonal” – the voice tone (rising and/or falling) as the word is spoken affecting its definition. Some languages have a glottal quality involving opening or closing the larynx. Other languages have a clicking sound. And, then, of course, there is language with no sound such as sign language.
For most of us who speak a language which is also written, we end up actually using three means of communication: ordinary daily spoken language, more formal speech and written language. We speak casually to friends, in short packets of information – seldom in complete sentences. However, were we to appear before a judge or other situation in which we wanted to impress our view we speak more formally.
An example….. to a friend we might say: “I went to get a beer and when I got back the house was dark.” But, to a judge we might say: “I went to buy/purchase a bottle/can of beer and when I returned the house was dark.”
Languages which are written tend to change more slowly and acquire an aura of grammatical standardization. But, according to McWhorter, there is no standardization and in fact there is no such thing as a standard language. He posits the interesting view that all languages are a collection of various dialects. The English spoken in New York City is a variant of that which is spoken in Alabama or the San Fernando Valley in California. Who is to say what “standard” English is?
An exception to this is modern Hebrew which is spoken by a very small group of people in a tiny country for less than a century. Hebrew is also an example of a rare success story of reviving a language but this was because of several unique factors. It was explicitly designated as the official language of a new country – not imposed upon an existing country. It had government support and funding. Immigrants coming to Israel spoke many languages and so were motivated to move to a single language. McWhorter states, however, that the most important factor was the religious link; Hebrew represented the very soul of the people.
I was surprised that McWhorter never mentioned the Basque language which is unique in Europe, seemingly unrelated to any other European language and is thought to pre-date the arrival of Indo-European as well as Romance language families.
I enjoyed this book and though McWhorter does not “write down” to a general readership (such as me) the material is clearly and engagingly presented. He injects personal humor that some might find annoying – but I did not.
I do, however, take issue with the several instances in which the author tries to incorporate his strongly held leftist political ideology which includes: the bane of capitalism, imperialism, globalization, etc. This interjection is awkward and seems desperate – it just doesn’t “fit.”
In an ad hoc footnote McWhorter takes a gratuitous swipe at a former American president regarding his lack of facility in extemporaneous communication with the undertone that this indicates a lack in the president’s other intellectual capabilities. It might be well to remember that Churchill had a speech defect – as did Moses. It seems to me when an author has a need to demean a public figure by name with no tie to the subject of the book – the author actually demeans himself.
With this caveat, I would still recommend the book.
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Orysiek is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the arts and literature. You may comment to her at sheila.orysiek@sdjewishworld.com