The First Word

The Search for the Origins of Language

A Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, The First Word is about the quest for the origins of human language. Although language is a distinctly human gift, it leaves no permanent trace and its evolution has long been a mystery. It is only in the last fifteen years that we have begun to understand how language came into being. The First Word follows two intertwined narratives. The first is an account of how the random and layered processes of evolution wound together to produce a talking animal: us. The second addresses why language evolution was considered a scientific taboo for more than a hundred years and why scientists are at last able to explore the subject.

Advanced Praise

"The First Word' is a rare and delightful mix: both a probing exploration of one of the great remaining mysteries of life, and a riveting story of the battles and breakthroughs that drive scientific progress."

~ Steve Johnson

Author of Where Good Ideas Come From

"A clear and splendidly written account of a new field of research on a central question about the human species."

~ Steven Pinker

Author of The Blank Slate

In the News

“It never hurts to begin with a genius, so the author opens by declaring, “the story of language evolution studies is unavoidably the story of the intellectual reign of Noam Chomsky.” Before Chomsky, linguists searched for new languages, wrote down vocabulary and grammar and compared them to other languages…” Read More

Kirkus

“All branches of science search for origins. Biologists want to know how life on earth began. Astronomers want to know how the universe got started. Even in mathematics, questions about how different numerical systems came to be constitute a legitimate line of inquiry Linguists are different. In the middle of the 19th century…” Read More