This is the first of columns listing links in the news connected to language. These links do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology but are connected to topics that members might be interested in. Reaction pieces and comments welcome.
From the New York Times:
“Phonetic Clues Hint Language Is Africa-Born” by Nicholas Wade. Fascinating article on where language originally originated. Quentin Atkinson, mathematician from Auckland, New Zealand, hypothesizes number of phonemes in click languages reflects closeness to the origins of language in Africa.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/science/15language.html?src=ISMR_AP_LI_MST_FB
“How Language Heals” by Abraham Verghese, book review of One Hundred Names of Love by Diane Ackerman and Paul West. Discusses the language of relationships and recovery from stroke.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/books/review/book-review-one-hundred-names-for-love-by-diane-ackerman.html?src=recg
For a discussion of the Atkinson paper, I would recommend also reading Mark Liberman’s discussion on Language Log: Phonemic diversity decays “out of Africa”?.
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