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Written in Stone

A Journey Through the Stone Age and the Origins of Modern Language

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
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.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from September 7, 2015
      Stevens (Thirty Days Has September) takes readers on a lively romp through history as he traces the origins of English and many other modern languages all the way back to the Stone Age. With a showman’s enthusiasm, he examines how the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language laid the groundwork for over six millennia of linguistic evolution, revealing how each ancient syllable forms the root of dozens of words and concepts. “It’s proof that today’s languages didn’t evolve across two continents by accident—they developed from a mother tongue that was infinitely more efficient, memorable, and flexible than anything the other tribes could come up with,” he explains. Stevens elaborates on “the way new words built on old, letter by letter,” and notes that PIE “wasn’t so much a mother tongue, more a construction kit.” Each short chapter focuses on a single syllable, its evolution, and its descendants. Thus, em, which meant to buy, becomes emporium, example, premium, redemption, promptly, irredeemable, and ransom. Diw, which meant to be bright as day, becomes divine, journey, daisies, Jupiter, deity, and dismal. Stevens’s passion for wordplay can lead to frenetic writing, but it’s always enlightening and engaging. This is a delight for anyone who loves language in any form. Agent: Heather Holden-Brown, HHB Agency (U.K.).

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  • English

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