#238 overall
Language: A to Z
The Great Courses
2 recommenders · 2 threads · recommended in 2 years, 2016–2023 · score 1.8
A lecture series from The Great Courses (now Wondrium) by linguist John McWhorter covering language as a whole: how languages work, change, and relate to culture and each other. It is offered as audio and video lectures.
Commenters call it highly recommended and incredibly fascinating for anyone interested in language, and note it is part of a fixed-cost subscription.
Humanities & Social Sciencebeginnerpaidvideo lectures#linguistics#language change#john mcwhorter#general linguistics
Recommendations by year
20062026
Language is a tool to facilitate information exchange. It doesn't matter how "superior" one language is to another for any given reason, if a language provides limited opportunity to exchange information then it is not valuable. The incentives to learn English exist because the value of exchanging information in English is strong in the present-day sociopolitical context, and the malleability of the language played a large role in making that so as cultures and languages blended together in early day America. When translation becomes effortless and/or integrated into society in a near seamless fashion, the distinguishing value of information exchange in the spoken word will be diminished. I have no speculation on the long-term prospects of the written word.
This is a good time to say that I'm not an expert, just a speculating Internet guy who has read (and listened to) relevant information from time to time. If anyone finds this kind of conversation interesting I highly recommend checking out The Great Courses "Language A to Z" audiobook / audio lecture series. It's incredibly fascinating.
Subscribe to Wondrium (formerly called the Great Courses)! It includes many of McWhorter's courses and is a fixed cost per month (reasonable IMO). E.g. https://www.wondrium.com/language-a-to-z
Also, if you ever need chill content while you fall asleep, they have many moderately-interesting classes from professors with calm voices and detailed content...