Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

“…I learned a lot more about McWhorter’s sexual preferences than anything else…”

This audio book series is a collection of 36 lectures given by John McWhorter, reputedly a world-renowned expert on language, in the early 2000s (around 2004, I think).

Almost immediately, he incurred my wrath while just introducing the topic. He makes a ludicrous claim that dogs can’t choke on their food because of the position of the larynx; but ours is lower, allowing us to talk but also have greater chances of choking. This is simply wrong. My dog often chokes (briefly) when she wolfs down her food. I’ve never had a dog that doesn’t. Cats choke regularly – hence the stereotype of the ‘coughing up furballs’ (although I’ve never seen a cat actually produce a ball of fur!).

Similarly, he dismisses all attempts at communication by animals with humans, claiming this is nothing more than the most simple communication and that animals are utterly incapable of language. He dismisses the advanced language work with primates, ignores whales and dolphins and claims the classic bee’s honey dance to tell others in the hive where food is to be found as little more than a one-trick wonder.

The problem with making great claims about animals is that, sooner or later, research will prove you wrong. Just recently I was reading a peer-published review demonstrating that bees (among other animals) show evidence of social learning – far from a one-trick game. Dolphins and whales are known to have extensive language complete with regional dialects and a complex social order. Likewise, birds are known to have dialects. In classic ‘test a fish on how well it can climb’ fallacy, he claims that primates learning a huge array of words and using them to create new concepts previously not taught to them was not language because they can’t express bewilderment, awe or possibility.

But I speak Bengali reasonably fluently and I am quite capable at French, yet could not manage such complex ideas simply because I am not bilingual naturally and still have much to learn to be proficient at these languages. According to McWhorter, I therefore don’t have language skills at all. The fact that primates can be taken out of their natural environment, away from the social setting and learn a completely alien language for doing tasks which are equally alien, seems to me to be pretty damned good evidence that they have the ability to communicate with language – even if their new ‘second language’ of English (or any other human language) is nowhere near as proficient. McWhorter is a fool to miss this.

Similarly, tiktok videos abound of people showing magic tricks to primates (and even marine life) and it is clear there is awe, shock, amazement and fun ably communicated. I do magic tricks to my dogs and they behave similarly. When I feel these emotions, generally, it isn’t words that I use. It is body language – just as these animals are doing. All these creatures are able to turn these emotions into communication that expresses thought and intent, even if it isn’t necessarily a vocal one – a false relation considering they don’t have the vocal cords to do so. If advanced language was communicated by smell (and pheromones are definitely used as such in the animal kingdom) then the human race would be screwed. We can’t detect anything, compared with most animals. We would, according to McWhorter, have to consider ourselves unintelligent.

So these kinds of opening remarks had me irritated right from the start; and it is a pity because I was really hoping to learn something. I have always been fascinated by language and its development. Etymology has been a hobby of mine for many years. Authors like Bill Bryson, Oliver Kamm and Mark Forsyth have written some excellent books looking at the twists and turns of the English language over many centuries. I wanted to take this further.

The next disappointment with this series is that most the of lectures are nothing to do with the ‘story’ of language at all. McWhorter deals with supposed ideas about origins quite early on. It isn’t long and mostly centres around theories of proto-languages and much stranger theories of ‘a first language’. Several of the lectures centre around various theories – current or otherwise – and McWhorter’s assessment of their worthiness or interest. There’s not much else in these lectures after that and most of it is quite superficial.

The rest of the time, McWhorter discusses how languages change over time, and creoles, pidgins and even Black English is explored. These are all very interesting but, again, there’s not an awful lot that’s new here. That said, I did learn little titbits of information. I didn’t have a huge understanding of exactly what is meant by ‘creole’ nor exactly how you define ‘pidgin’. I learned something too about the nature of ‘click’ languages and how syllables tend to take the same route when they change over time (the upshot of which is that languages ‘simplify’ in terms of sounds).

But I think it would be fair to say I learned a lot more about McWhorter’s sexual preferences than anything else. It seems he had a girl in every port and shared freely with the audience his various conquests along the years when the nationality of the girl was relevant to the language he was discussing at the time.

This kind of over-sharing I can empathise with to an extent. As a teacher, I happily did similar with my older students. It’s the kind of thing some kind of teachers can do to make themselves more interesting and more real to their students. However, the classroom is a private forum. It’s not that you’re saying something secret – just private and ‘of the time’. Sharing it with a larger audience on a recording that is there for all of posterity, is probably not so wise. Views have moved on and not everything McWhorter says is as hip and cool today as it might have been twenty years ago.

Still, I’ll give him this – he’s an entertaining speaker. It was no hardship listening to the recordings and, afore-mentioned irritations aside, generally a pleasant experience. McWhorter may not have said anything new in these lectures, but he did make the area interesting and attractive to the general listener.

The one thing that was an eye-opener (and I will always be grateful for the introduction to) is the Click Song by Miriam Makeba. I had never heard of her or her music before. It is well worth a look/listen. This alone is worth an upgrade in my star rating. Cracking stuff.

My Verdict:

You can buy me a coffee if you like! More accurately, you can help support my work either as a one off or monthly if you really want to show your love…

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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