The Unfolding of Language
by Guy Deutscher · first published 2005
13mentions
9recommended by
12HN commenters
2017–2024first – last mentioned
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible tour of how languages change over time, showing that grammar gets simpler or more complex without losing expressive power; entertaining for general readers and newcomers to linguistics.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…other words: “It’s ‘dess-turb-uhd’, with THREE vowels! Not that nasty word ‘dess-turbd’ which is impossible to pronounce! What a horrible degradation of the language!” (For more of this, Deutscher’s The Unfolding of Language contains a highly amusing list of examples dating all the way back to Cicero in 46 BC, who complains that the speech of his day was sadly degraded from the great orators of the past. I’m certain I’ve…
on “The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020)” ↗For people interested in this kind of stuff, Guy Deutscher's book "The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention" is a fun read! As is the "The History of English" podcast [0], for the more aurally inclined. On a related note, the Great Vowel Shift [1] of the…
on “Why People from Manchester Are Mancunians, Not Manchesterians” ↗The book "The Unfolding of Language: the evolution of mankind's greatest invention" by Guy Deutscher explains this very well and has numerous examples. As a language noob, I found it fascinating!
on “Ask HN: Teach me something new” ↗For general linguistics: "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher.
on “Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” ↗…an explanation for is why older languages often have more elaborate and complex grammar than modern languages, and why English has simplified over time more than others. I can recommend the book The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention on that subject. It really can't be answered in a short summary.
on “A Map Showing How Much Time It Takes English-Speakers to Learn Foreign Languages” ↗…Inventions of Evolution A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery Cosmicomics Why Quark Rhymes with Pork The Unfolding of Language A Sand County Almanac
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗…also tend to merge words together and elaborate simple constructions to more complex ones, in order to retain the expressive capabilities of their language. I’ve already mentioned Deutscher’s bool The Unfolding of Language; I will recommend it again here, since it has a great summary of exactly how these processes work and interact with each other in order to generate complexity in language.
on “The History of ‘Ampersand’ (2020)” ↗For those interested, I highly recommend "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher, in which he describes how languages evolve over time, to the great annoyance of purists, but without either losing or gaining sophistication in the long run. It's a very entertaining…
on “Germans decry influence of English as 'idiot's apostrophe' gets approval” ↗Check out the Unfolding of Language if you're interest in the Language Instinct. Also Elephant in the Room made me think of the Master and his Emissary, very interesting book, check that one out too.
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…about linguistics and compilers. If you're feeling lazy, Tom Scott has some decent linguistics videos and are aimed at STEM audiences. For more technical maybe see NativLang. For a book, checkout The Unfolding of Language. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_(game) Edit: btw, you did get the meaning of finger shoes (German) even with the extreme limitations of only text based communication.
on “To the brain, reading computer code is not the same as reading language” ↗…oldest PIE language Hittite was deciphered. And there appearing in the very place where he had predicted it to be, the rogue consonant was found written down in clay. Source: around page 109 from "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Deutscher.
on “What did ancient languages sound like?” ↗The book The Unfolding of Language[1] describes the forces that shape how language evolves. One is extending the use of a pattern (e.g. "en" for plural), even in cases like this one where it wasn't technically appropriate. Another is the…
on “Why “children,” not “childs”? (2016)” ↗> I just give you two books that you've read and you tell me which is better. I can't wait to compare The Pickwick Papers against The Unfolding of Language.
on “Goodreads was the future of book reviews. Then Amazon bought it” ↗