The Dawn of Language-it’s all about how to write

In 1866 The French National Academy of Sciences banned all discussions on the Origin of Languages. And rightly so, many would argue. As we can never have any tangible evidence of how our ancestors spoke, grunted or gesticulated, the whole matter would remain entirely speculative, and unworthy of the attention of serious minded Natural Philosophers. So if you are going to venture a book on the subject, it had better be pretty good. But The Dawn of Language by Sverker Johannsen does more than that. It our view it is one of those rare pieces that set the ground rules on how to write. Anything. Before we explain why, we’re going to mention the translation by Frank Perry, which has clearly contributed to the rave we’re about to give)

First know your reader: The kind of person who will pick this up will be an intelligent specialist in another field: banking or social work perhaps. Never talk down, and don’t talk up with silly jokes. The author hits the right balance every time.

Second Don’t overload with jargon. Your reader will know relatively little of the arcane terminology of linguistics or paleoanthropology Introduce as few terms as possible, and explain them when you do He does, so we keep wanting more

Third Keep your sentences short: one thought one sentence We learn that this is how our earliest ancestors probably spoke anyway, so why change a good thing?

Fourth You can liven the narrative occasionally with odd anecdotes about your daughter and certain remarkable parrots; but keep them short and utterly relevant at all times

Fifth If you are going to wade into the warring tribes of savagely competing academics, be scrupulously respectful to all sides. Even Noam Chomsky.

Sixth Above all, be humble in the face of all facts; and when speculation is called for, label and mark it carefully as such

We have read few other non fiction works which kept as gripped as well as Dr Johannsen has done. Among the few that came close were the works of Robin Dunbar in the 1990s(he is namechecked here) and we can heartily recommend Johansson as a worthy successor

Marks out of five: 10

Sverker Johansson The Dawn of Language trans Frank Perry Maclehouse Press London 2021

#linguistics #human evolution #grammar #language #paleoanthropology