How do languages evolve? Why does language always change-and does it decline or does it progress? How did language ever become so complex? In The Unfolding of Language , Guy Deutscher responds to the big questions with big answers, along the way solving such mysteries as - why German maidens are neuter but German turnips are female - how words manage to accomplish a complete U-turn in their meaning over a relatively short time-like the word "resent," which, in the seventeenth century, meant "appreciate" or "feel grateful for" - why Islam, Muslim, and Solomon are all variations on one Semitic root, s-l-m ("be at peace") - how the design of Sumerian (the language spoken 5,000 years ago by the people who kick-started history) is so sophisticated that even a pause in the middle of a word can convey specific information - why we have feet and not foots - how the French came to say "on the day of this day" when they mean "today" - why most of the world's languages don't have a verb for "have"-and how one goes about expressing the notion of possession without it - why human intuition-as evidenced by all human languages-discovered the connection between space and time thousands of years before Einstein Excerpted from The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention by Guy Deutscher All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
