The first section disturbed me. I didn't realize how many languages were in the world, and I had no clue how many were dying. It is hard to believe that 5,000 languages out 6,000 languages in the world have less than 100,000 speakers and that 3,000 languages will die in the next century. That is a crazy statistic. I'd assume many of those languages are the old tribal languages of Africa, including Nyacusa, which is spoken in the area off Tanzania.
I also learned a lot from the following section. This discussed how languages are born. I learned how pidgin languages evolve into creole languages. This is what happened with Swahili. Apparently, Swahili was invented to help Indians trade with various African people; therefore, it started as a pidgin language. Eventually, it became more popular and more complex, and eventually transformed into a creole language, spoken by many people on the Eastern Coast of Africa. It is also the national language of Kenya, Tanzania, and possibly a few other countries.
I thought the section on how language began was very interesting, but it didn't give any clear answers. I realize that there may not be any answers, but I found that parts of this section were slightly over my head. For instance, I don't have the scientific knowledge to know what the difference between an Australopithecus and a Neanderthal are. It is very interesting, but I would need more knowledge on the development of humans to have a better understanding of this section.
How language changes also is pretty useful while learning a new language. Old English is obviously very different from New English, but language is constantly changing and words are being used in new ways. For instance, slang terms today are different than the slang terms that my parents and grandparents used. When my Dad was growing up the word "gay" meant happy, and today we use it to describe someone (especially a male) who is homosexual. I'm reminded of the song "Back When" by Tim McGraw (yes, I do enjoy my country music). The refrain puts it this way "Back when a hoe was a hoe/ Coke was a coke/ And crack's what you were doing/ When you were cracking jokes/ Back when a screw was a screw/ The wind was all that blew/ And when you said I'm down with that/ Well it meant you had the flu./ I miss back when." Even between generations language changes so much. In Swahili, for example, Hujambo was a common greeting, but now it is mainly used when addressing elders. Now, people just use jambo or vipi to greet a friend.
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