Marvelous book as much about scholarly bias (and mishigas) as it is about the evolution of language. Witty, wise, and wordworthy. ( )

"The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language" covers the very fascinating topic of language and where it came from and why.

The first part of the book discussed several of the major theories about language origins, and I felt this was where the book was strongest.

The rest of the book looked in great detail at experiments and theories involving language in animals other than ourselves because to know where we are, one has to know where we've been. Accepting evolution as to how humans got to where they are, by looking at our ancestors, the researches and scientists are trying to determine if language is uniquely human, if it is something we are born with in our genes, or if it is just a happy circumstance. While this is interesting, I felt the book dragged on a bit here.

I was very interested in reading the epilogue, which posed the question of if a group of babies were stranded on an island, would they develop language? The babies are somehow cared for or survive, but that isn't the point. The point is would language develop and what would it be like. I was expecting an exciting finish to the book with this thought experiment, but it didn't really live up to my expectations. Some answers were great and lengthy and descriptive. Others were either a flat "no" or "yes, as long as there are two babies."

In reading this book, I was hoping to find out how language shapes our lives and our thoughts because without language, we would not be able to communicate as we do and you would not have been able to read this review. ( )

This was a really good survey of the research on the evolution of language. It was accessible and easy to read but didn't "dumb down" the infomation too much. The story of the linguists doing the work is a bit of a soap opera and there was a little too mcuh of the drama presented in the book. And there were a few points in the book where I thought the author dropped a topic too soon, almost abruptly. Overall, though, it was an informative and enjoyable read.