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  • Written in Stone

  • A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language
  • By: Christopher Stevens
  • Narrated by: Michael Healy
  • Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
  • 1.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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Written in Stone

By: Christopher Stevens
Narrated by: Michael Healy
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Publisher's Summary

Half the world's population speaks a language that has evolved from a single prehistoric mother tongue. First spoken in Stone Age times on the steppes of central Eurasia 6,500 years ago, this mother tongue spread from the shores of the Black Sea across almost all of Europe and much of Asia. It is the genetic basis of everything we speak and write today - the DNA of language.

Written in Stone combines detective work, mythology, ancient history, archaeology, the roots of society, technology and warfare, and the sheer fascination of words to explore that original mother tongue, sketching the connections woven throughout the immense vocabulary of English, with some surprising results. In snappy, lively, and often very funny chapters, Written in Stone uncovers the most influential and important words used by our Neolithic ancestors and shows how they are still in constant use today - the building blocks of all our most common words and phrases.

©2015 Christopher Stevens (P)2015 Tantor
Words, Language & Grammar World Linguistics English Language History
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Critic Reviews

"Stevens, an adventurer in language, demonstrates considerable prowess in making the journey both edifying and entertaining." ( Kirkus)

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Profile Image for MR CHRISTOPHER J GUEST

Pseudolinguistics

This book started off with a few statements that sounded implausible - such that the many of the oldest words in English were onomatopoeic. It was mixed in with some plausible statements.
Then there was a fixation on Proto-European having a lot of monosyllabic words.
There was a suggestion that Indo-European languages were more practical, which struck me as quite fanciful given the arbitrary genders that learners have to get their heads around in most of these languages.
I fell asleep after a while and when I woke up I was about two hours in and the book had degenerated into wholesale nonsense.

"Em - to buy: Emporium, Example, Premium, Redemption"
"Ez - to exist: Essence, Present, Pride, Soothsayer"

I've been stuck at parties talking to people like Christopher Stevens and I fail to see why anyone would think that his preposterous ideas are worthy of an Ebook. Likewise, it really saddens me that Michael Healy has wasted a good 10 hours of his life reading this claptrap.
I'm heading straight for a refund.

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