SPEECH! How Language Made Us Human - Prentis, Simon

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Résumé :
From apes to astronauts: SPEECH! tells the extraordinary story of a simple evolutionary trick that's been hiding in plain sight. What if it was language that made us intelligent - not the other way round?

I couldn't stop reading until I finished it. This book should be widely read! James Lovelock
I think you're right. Steven Pinker A literate and stylish writer. Richard Dawkins
An utterly enthralling voyage into the very heart of what makes us human. Stephen Fry

Language is so familiar that we rarely stop to ask how it began - or what it really changed. SPEECH! argues that a surprisingly simple evolutionary trick transformed not just the way our ancestors communicated, but the way they thought. From that moment, ideas could accumulate, cultures could evolve, and humanity embarked on a journey unlike anything else seen in nature. Drawing on biology, anthropology, psychology, history and linguistics, SPEECH! offers a radical new explanation for one of the greatest mysteries in human evolution: how language emerged - and how an unseen switch unleashed a cognitive revolution. For language gave us a shared intelligence - a group brain that allowed knowledge, science and civilisation to flourish alongside the competing worlds of culture, religion and identity that still shape our struggles today. This is not just the story of how language began. It's the story of how language changed everything - from our very first words to the dawn of artificial intelligence. But it is also about the future: if language was how we learned to be a global species, can it now help us to truly live as one?

Further endorsements:
Crisp and clear - I agree with your hypothesis. Desmond Morris
A genuine intellectual feast of ideas. One of the most intelligent books I've read in a long time. Matt Ridley
Lucid, wide-ranging and accessible. Terry Eagleton An imaginative, scholarly work. Sir Anthony Seldon
Reading for both pleasure and research. Ricky Gervais Bravo! A compelling read. Yoko Ono Lennon
Subtle, erudite and profoundly thought-provoking. Nicholas Crane I highly recommend it. Harper Reed

Jee Mandayo: https: //medium.com/@info_60370/if-you-liked-sapiens-youll-love-this-eff80e034b0c...

Sommaire:
Praise from STEPHEN FRY: A book to make you cry out 'Yes, yes, yes!' SPEECH! is an utterly enthralling voyage into the very heart of what makes us human. To put it simply, Simon Prentis gets it. He gets that language is, above everything else, the key to understanding ourselves, our past and our future. But he gets something else too - fascinating, illuminating, thrilling as his voyage may be, it is above all urgent.

Stands alongside works by Steven Pinker and James Lovelock as a 'must-read' for our times. - JOHN GRIBBIN
I couldn't stop reading until I finished it. This book should be widely read! - JAMES LOVELOCK
I'm glad to have read it. A literate and stylish writer. - RICHARD DAWKINS
Subtle, erudite and profoundly thought-provoking. - NICHOLAS CRANE
Such an imaginative and scholarly work. - SIR ANTHONY SELDON
Reading for both pleasure and research. - RICKY GERVAIS
Bravo! A compelling read. - YOKO ONO LENNON
I think you're right. - STEVEN PINKER

What makes us human? Why are we the only animals who wear clothes, surf social media, and send robots to Mars? It's all because we've learnt to talk: yet remarkably, we still don't know how we did it. SPEECH! suggests an answer that's been hiding in plain sight - a simple yet radical shift that turned our primitive grunts and shrieks to words. But the consequences were far from simple, for language was an evolutionary tipping point: it gave us the power to share ideas and pass on knowledge. SPEECH! traces our roller-coaster ride from hunter-gatherer to urban hipster: the epic tale of humanity's struggle to escape the traps of culture, religion and identity - a journey that leaves us poised on the brink of a destiny we may still resist, but must now embrace if we wish to survive...

About the author: Simon Prentis has spent a lifetime working with other cultures and languages in over fifty countries. A veteran translator and interpreter of Japanese, his clients have ranged from government departments and academic and international institutions to cultural icons like Paul McCartney, Stanley Kubrick, Frank Zappa and Yoko Ono....