Fascinating, plus a good brush up on how to improve your syntax and grammar.
How is it that human beings have come to acquire language? Steven Pinker's introduction to the field includes thoughts on the evolution of spoken language and the debate over the existence of an innate universal grammar, as well as an exploration of why language is such a fundamental part of social relationships, human biology, and human evolution. Finally, Pinker touches on the wide variety of applications for linguistics, from improving how we teach reading and writing to how we interpret law, politics, and literature.
Best way, K, is to learn another language.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me, today, February9, is a very special day -- it is the day the United Nations has officially declared as International Day of the Greek Language.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/262173/article/ekathimerini/community/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-marks-international-greek-language-day
Trivia: The Greek spoken today is derived from the Greek of Alexander's: the Hellenistic/Koine (the Greek of the New Testament). There is a form of Greek spoken today, however, that is derived from the Doric Greek, the Greek spoken by the Ancient Spartans and also the language that Thucydides wrote The History of the Peloponnesian War. It's spoken by only a few thousand speakers in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese, and oddly enough, in some small enclaves in southern Italy (formerly known as Magna Graecia) and, believe it or not, on the French island of Corsica!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabrian_Greek
and...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_France
Yes. Napoleon descended from those Greeks, Bonaparte was a translation of a Greek name.
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