Give it a couple of years and I want to see him Earl Fry of Norfolk. Or something like that -I'm on a train after work and can't think properly. I'll get back to you.
No. As I understand it, Stephen refused a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth ll.I have heard that this happened twice, with Stephen answering that "Sir Stephen is too pompous. It would be like wearing a suit every day." However, Stephen and King Charles have been friends for some years and I can only suppose that Stephen didn't want to disappoint his friend and fellow magician, who has had a beastly time of it recently, what with cancer and his younger son's shenanigans. However,I am no expert! Met Fergie once, before she was Duchess of York, and that's IT.
Thank you, Stephen Fry! I didn’t even know who you are until I was 77 years old (I’m 78 now), but I discovered Jeeves and Wooster on TH-cam and fell under the spell of your voice, mien and intellect. Oh my-I mustn’t forget to mention your comedic genius! It’s been such a pleasure finding your many projects, shows and discourses through the magic of our modern media. You are a treasure-especially where our wonderful English language is concerned. I love words, and as an American high school English teacher, now retired, I was blessed to read, hear and use many thousands of them over the years. ⭐️ I hope you don’t retire before I leave this earthly vale and go where I can delve into (and learn) the beauty of the angels’ language(s).
Congratulations, Sir Stephen Fry, you are so wonderful and Planet Word is your gift to humanity and human connection. You are our David Attenborough for Planet Word- beautiful, thank you...
I've only had a few heroes in my life who wanted to change the world for the better. Carl Sagan being one of them. I gladly call you, Sir Stephen Fry, as one of those. I love to see you in debates, and I love to see you share the things you are passionate about, with the world. Not as a warrior of intellectualism, but rather a humanist with great intellect.
A huge Congratulations to SIR Shephen Fry. Im a huge fan. As a comedian, actor, documentaries, interviews, and how interesting you tell tales and stories. What an absolute genius and genuine honest gentleman. Very best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪. As an Irishman, im not in favour of people being called Sir/Lady, ( probably because of our history) but having said that i am truly delighted for you to be recognized for all you have accomplished.The joy , happiness and inspiration you have brought into peoples lives the world over. A living legend. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪👍👍👍
I remember being an infant (from _in_ not + _fans/fari_ to speak). I was on cushions next to the fire. Big people sat around above me like a pantheon of gods. Firelight caught the gold and pearls and soft hair of the women; and the rumbling men, all in grey, reminded me of thunder, but in a comforting way. I listened as they all seemlessly took turns with their complex yet nonsensical songs…for that is what it sounded like to my ears. They may as well have been giga-oropendolas gabbling! The astounding thing - so astounding that it physically startled me each time it happened - was that by some magical mechanism or unseen cue, they would all burst into laughter (as I came to understand it) at the same moment, throwing their heads back and rocking in their chairs. What was it in the room with so much power to move these gods, like doors slammed by a great wind!? Yet the room was still. In retrospect, guess it was just my parents having some friends over for drinks. (I learned later my father made a very good rum swizzle…as well as his own swizzle sticks!)
Thank you so much for sharing with us this very interesting documentary! I just dicovered your channel. As a child psychiatrist I couldn’t help but notice your beautiful interaction with little Ruby. You might not be aware that you demonstrated some very important factors in language learning, namely emotional contact, attachment and playful interaction in a safe environment. I’m sure you felt it impossible NOT to engage in interaction and play, and that’s the magic of it❤
Dear Mr Fry, why in the whole of this planet is there no museum dedicated to Language ? The most precious of and the most diverse collection of treasures that we have..? I am so glad that you have started us all on this journey of discovering us!
Congratulations, Sir Stephen, on your much-deserved honour. I really hope that we are going to see the whole series on TH-cam as I don't remember it's being available in Australia at the time it was originally aired.
Thank You Sir Stephen, very entertaining! Then again, the mentioned English, German, Italian etc. are basically the same, with only some tiny differences.
SIR Steven Fry ! Altho perfectly deserved I'm highly amused at the hypocrisy and sublime humor of a royal recognition when we all knew you where above and beyond BRILLIANT. I suppose it's a far better treatment than what those same pricks did to A. Turing😢
I just found out you've been Knighted. Sir Stephen. Long overdue. I had a bit of a nerdgasm ( fanboy parlance) when you showed the Klingon language. The beauty and diversity of global languages is in line with the Vulcan IDIC philosophy: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. I've seen your other doc series over the years and am really excited to see this as well. Q'Pla! ( Success in Klingon). 🤣 🖖☺🤘🇨🇦
My favourite writer on the 20th centaury is Chomsky! I love the world he poses. It is one of communication. An adjective is the most complex human puzzle. it informs opinion rather than communication. If I defined myself to thinking in adjectives, I would not have or reason to have the room to be Human.
Great to see Sir Benjimouse of Magrathea at work in the lab. These poor humans with their simplistic understanding of language. Can’t even parse the great poem “Eeek” which contains over fifty million subtly interplaying concepts and reveals the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Stephen Fry is, indeed, an international treasure and treat. But it's ironic that he so casually throws out "miraculous" and "miracle" in his narration.
Thanks Stephen- I wonder if you interviewed another Stephen, Stephen Porges- and talked about evolution of language and evolution of our nervous systems. Polyvagal theory. I wonder what Stephen Porges might say about social engagement, music and the development of language. :)
This is a very old series, first broadcast in September 2011. Who knows, but it's possible that the people working on it at BBC2 weren't yet aware that Comic Sans had become so despised in the world of graphic design.
"Mice can have litters every few months." 🙄Don't I know it. When I have to go away for a couple months, they take over my dresser. Ugh. 😑 This was really fascinating, thank you. I hope you'll put up the other episodes at some point.
That is a interesting thought that the need for language came from the need to cooperate to get food. Cooking, of course, being another of those miracles unique to humans.
I was supposed to be doing something else, but then the brilliance of Stephen Fry graced my TH-cam feed, and i declined to do that other thing as this is far better. At @42:18 Barak Obama is mentioned, so I'm wondering when this film was actually made?
To answer my own question. " Fry's Planet Word is a documentary series about language. Written and presented by Stephen Fry, five hour-long episodes were first broadcast in September and October 2011 on BBC Two and BBC HD. " en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Planet_Word
The interesting element is that the emphasis here is on spoken language, but then there is the whole other ball-game of written language. How was it we furthered one form of communication into another? Robert, uk.
When I was a baby, I didn't start talking until I was relatively old. However, according to my (obviously unbiased) mother, when I did start talking, I could already speak 'properly'.... and have never shut up ever since.
Hi. Inspired by Sir Fry. If we imagine all the tools in a workshop as words and ourselves as the one who crafts, then we can see we are a witness, an observer of our creativity, one who produces within uncertainty. Something like that.
With knighthoods, you use the Christian name, in casual speech. Sir Stephen. More official, Sir Stephen Fry. Just as with Damehoods, you say Dame Judy casually, and Dame Judy Dench, officially. There is no situation when you put Sir or Dame, with last name, alone.. Though most British middle class would prefer Stephen or Judy, in general conversation. If Stephen were married to a woman, SHE would be correctly, Lady Fry, not Lady Elliott, because her married title is only given to her because she is married to a knight. She has done nothing to earn a title - but marry a knight. Once you get to an Earl level and upwards, daughters ARE Lady, for example, Diana. They earn their rank from being a daughter of an earl or better. So you can earn a Baroness (Lady) title for scientific research, or the honorific Lady, for being the daughter of an earl or better BUT if you MARRY a Baron, lowest level Lord, or better, you are Lady last name of husband or title. Because you married into it. You're not of the same blood and you did not earn it yourself. If you are the wife of an eg earl, and your husband dies, if you have one adult son, who is married, he inherits the title and his wife then, is Lady husbands last name or title, and as the widow of the previous earl, to prevent confusion, you are called the Dowager Lady Whatever OR, more usually, Elliott, Lady Whatever. So she is still Lady Whatever, but reverts back to her christian name, as introduction, as her title was through.her marriage, not blood or amazing research or fast running and charity work.
Language is so important that we have it despite the increased risk of choking because of the modifications in the larynx required to produce speech sounds.
Interesting. Would like to hear your take on "The Alex Studies", an African Grey (parrot) taught meaningful speech by Irene Pepperburg, and also Koko, the gorilla taught sign language.
I tried to post the link for episode 2 but apparently comment with links get taken down without notice. The only way to get to episode 2 is through the inset at the end of this episode. This channel made it unlisted by mistake. Please, upvote so more people can see this.
Language is our most powerful tool. It connects us to our loved one, allows us to communicate our needs and desires, it informs us. Language however, is not without its perils, when used to subvert, influence, and manipulate people in order to gain power. The clergy and politicians do this without even considering the consequences as long as it benefits them. These bedfellows have subverted humanity before the invention of writing by the Mesopotamians and continue to do so. Our saviour the American Demigod, now back on the throne will save us all, hopefully from himself.
I got a kick out of seeing the performance of the version of Little Red Riding Hood from James Thurber's Fables for Our Time. A bit surprised they didn't update the reference to Calvin Coolidge.
Congrats Sir Stephen. I'm just wondering why episodes 2 isn't available. It's a brilliant series, truly. Just like you ( I know you wrote it, I'm speaking in general). 😁🖖🇨🇦
A knighthood is very deserved. But, I cant help think in comparison with some others that receive the same honour, Stephen is deserving of something far more distinguished and meaningful.
Approx 44:00 ... asking the signs for Barak Obama and Madonna ... Stephen Fry missed the opportunity to ask how to sign his own name. Although perhaps he did, but it was too rude to include in the programme. I could suggest one...
Thank you, Stephen. Babel pronounced correctly, rather than the way Americans (or a certain confused proportion of) pronounce it as 'babble', converting the word from its 'proper noun' form to an onomatopoeic verb.
But if Koko the gorilla could do sign language even half of what was claimed, there was clearly quite a lot of bandwidth in her brain to connect ideas and use them -- whether expressing her desires and needs, or sharing her emotional state. She could combine the words she was taught in unexpected sequences to make new meanings.
"the only species to have developed this miraculous gift of language" Were not, we just don't understand the language of, for example, a cat, i've had four cats, they're definitely not just making noises. its just like i don't understand Polish (even though i had a Polish Grandmother, who i never heard speak it) but i wouldn't say its not a language.
Hmmm. Of course language began among men who needed it for hunting. It was only later, when women noticed how useful it was, that they started making vocalisations to catch the 2-year old before they fell into the fire or a fast-running stream, cooing to a distressed infant or getting the attention of a sister or aunt to indicate they had found some particularly succulent berries. It's comforting that we can know with certainty what occurred in the distant past by comparing present day humans with our distant ancestors.
There have not been 50,000 years on this planet, Stephen... But, yes, one of the things you were correct about concerning the true origins of languages, and the way we learn such a code of sounds and keep them, tribally, is down to Miracle. God given - nothing to do with apes... God be praised. Hallelujah!! "In the beginning was the Word - and the word was with God - and the word was God"! (The Christian Gospel of John, Ch 1, v 1. The Holy Bible).
There are a few issues with statements made in this show. It has been determined that dolphins actually give each other names, so language does, while perhaps incomprehensible to most humans, exist among dolphins. Also, the notion that learning a second language is harder as an adult is complete rubbish. As long as an initial language is learned at a young age, additional languages are actually learned more easily as an adult than as a child. It just seems more difficult because we have other priorities in our lives and don't attend daily language classes with structured study as adults.
Why can’t language have developed in order to teach more advanced tool making. Chimps seem perfectly able to coordinate attacks on other chimps and hunt together without more complicated communication than grunts and signs.
One should at least keep an open mind on the complexity of language of animals. The language of spermwhales for instance ( bigger brains then ours, far more evolution-time ) might even be a bit too complex for us to understand. And there is methodological problem: studies on dogs show that the meaning of there sounds depend on what their bodies show at the same time. You cannot separate language from other means of communications, it's interconnected.
Language comes with necessity and voice ability. When necessity in evolution creates more complicated speech, then other mammals will develop it. Why are birds able to imitate sounds then learn how humans use them?
Many congratulations to you Sir Stephen, a Knight of the realm. Well deserved indeed.😊
It's about time! If anyone embodies the chivalry , grace and intelligence, Sir Stephen does in spades.
I thought he is already knighted
Give it a couple of years and I want to see him Earl Fry of Norfolk. Or something like that -I'm on a train after work and can't think properly. I'll get back to you.
No. As I understand it, Stephen refused a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth ll.I have heard that this happened twice, with Stephen answering that "Sir Stephen is too pompous. It would be like wearing a suit every day." However, Stephen and King Charles have been friends for some years and I can only suppose that Stephen didn't want to disappoint his friend and fellow magician, who has had a beastly time of it recently, what with cancer and his younger son's shenanigans. However,I am no expert! Met Fergie once, before she was Duchess of York, and that's IT.
Thank you, Sir Stephen Fry. You're genuinely one of the best examples of humanity I can think of.
Thank you for posting this on this platform.
Like many other folk, I was not able to access the original broadcast but am now able to do so.
Thank you, Stephen Fry! I didn’t even know who you are until I was 77 years old (I’m 78 now), but I discovered Jeeves and Wooster on TH-cam and fell under the spell of your voice, mien and intellect.
Oh my-I mustn’t forget to mention your comedic genius!
It’s been such a pleasure finding your many projects, shows and discourses through the magic of our modern media.
You are a treasure-especially where our wonderful English language is concerned.
I love words, and as an American high school English teacher, now retired, I was blessed to read, hear and use many thousands of them over the years.
⭐️ I hope you don’t retire before I leave this earthly vale and go where I can delve into (and learn) the beauty of the angels’ language(s).
Try to find episodes of a show he was in called "A bit of Fry and Laurie," you won't be disappointed.
Hopefully you've found his long running hosting stint of the show, "QI".
Favorite actor, favorite author, congratulations to the wonderful Stephen Fry from Ukraine!
Congratulations Sir Stephen Fry
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Congratulations, Sir Stephen Fry, you are so wonderful and Planet Word is your gift to humanity and human connection.
You are our David Attenborough for Planet Word- beautiful, thank you...
I've only had a few heroes in my life who wanted to change the world for the better. Carl Sagan being one of them. I gladly call you, Sir Stephen Fry, as one of those. I love to see you in debates, and I love to see you share the things you are passionate about, with the world. Not as a warrior of intellectualism, but rather a humanist with great intellect.
Loved you from QI to Hitchens and now this. Thank you for being you.
Nice to see you enjoying our back yard... In winter with a fire on the beach. Breaker Bay Wellington NZ.
A huge Congratulations to SIR Shephen Fry. Im a huge fan. As a comedian, actor, documentaries, interviews, and how interesting you tell tales and stories. What an absolute genius and genuine honest gentleman. Very best wishes from Ireland 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪. As an Irishman, im not in favour of people being called Sir/Lady, ( probably because of our history) but having said that i am truly delighted for you to be recognized for all you have accomplished.The joy , happiness and inspiration you have brought into peoples lives the world over. A living legend. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪👍👍👍
Every one loves Sir Stephen !
I remember being an infant (from _in_ not + _fans/fari_ to speak). I was on cushions next to the fire. Big people sat around above me like a pantheon of gods. Firelight caught the gold and pearls and soft hair of the women; and the rumbling men, all in grey, reminded me of thunder, but in a comforting way. I listened as they all seemlessly took turns with their complex yet nonsensical songs…for that is what it sounded like to my ears. They may as well have been giga-oropendolas gabbling! The astounding thing - so astounding that it physically startled me each time it happened - was that by some magical mechanism or unseen cue, they would all burst into laughter (as I came to understand it) at the same moment, throwing their heads back and rocking in their chairs. What was it in the room with so much power to move these gods, like doors slammed by a great wind!? Yet the room was still.
In retrospect, guess it was just my parents having some friends over for drinks. (I learned later my father made a very good rum swizzle…as well as his own swizzle sticks!)
Congratulations Sir Stephen! 🎉🎉🎉A much deserved title you have received ! 💙💙💙😊
One of the best humans on planet earth Sir Stephen Fry
Thanks much for posting this series here. Looking forward to all the episodes!
Congratulations Sir Stephen. Richly deserved and long overdue, imo.
Congratulations, sir, stephen, you've come a long way since the footlights 🎉
Thank you so much for sharing with us this very interesting documentary! I just dicovered your channel. As a child psychiatrist I couldn’t help but notice your beautiful interaction with little Ruby. You might not be aware that you demonstrated some very important factors in language learning, namely emotional contact, attachment and playful interaction in a safe environment. I’m sure you felt it impossible NOT to engage in interaction and play, and that’s the magic of it❤
So glad this channel exists! Great piece! Mesmerizing! Thank You!!!
"My name's Ramsbottom, so I'm called Sir."
At least the second part of that is true now.
Congratulations, Sir!
Thank you from Canada!
Great show! I hope we'll see John McWhorter interviewed sometime in the series! He did a great courses on the history of language. It was great!
Thank you. Stephen. A wonderful series. Look forward to each episode.💙🌻💙
Dear Mr Fry, why in the whole of this planet is there no museum dedicated to Language ? The most precious of and the most diverse collection of treasures that we have..? I am so glad that you have started us all on this journey of discovering us!
I never thought I would hear a Knight of the realm attempt to speak Klingon. Thank you Sir Stephen for an enlightened, witty and insightful program.
Congratulations, Sir Stephen, on your much-deserved honour. I really hope that we are going to see the whole series on TH-cam as I don't remember it's being available in Australia at the time it was originally aired.
Excellent, interesting video, thank you to the inimitable Mr fry.
Subscribed immediately! Thank you Stephen!
I love you sir Stephen fry❤
what a treat to get to hear such a great man talking about such an interesting subject. I'm lovin' it!
WoW !
Thank you 🙏🏻
This is my only Christmas and New Year Present ❤
Love it 🥰
My favourite subject! And congratulations, most deserving.🎉
Thank you Sir Stephen, and congratulations! I am soooo looking forward to next episodes!
I know Sir Stephen is not a Fry by birth, but every Fry I know is proud he chose the name for himself.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful video.
Thank You Sir Stephen, very entertaining!
Then again, the mentioned English, German, Italian etc. are basically the same, with only some tiny differences.
4:55 "You are a miracle." What a fun moment!
SIR Steven Fry ! Altho perfectly deserved I'm highly amused at the hypocrisy and sublime humor of a royal recognition when we all knew you where above and beyond BRILLIANT. I suppose it's a far better treatment than what those same pricks did to A. Turing😢
If you think language as anything less than Divine, you've not grasped how truly amazing it is.
I just found out you've been Knighted. Sir Stephen. Long overdue. I had a bit of a nerdgasm ( fanboy parlance) when you showed the Klingon language. The beauty and diversity of global languages is in line with the Vulcan IDIC philosophy: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. I've seen your other doc series over the years and am really excited to see this as well. Q'Pla! ( Success in Klingon). 🤣 🖖☺🤘🇨🇦
What I love about you, is you doing your best. ❤️😎🇨🇦
Excellent programme, well done Sir Stephen.🎉
My favourite writer on the 20th centaury is Chomsky! I love the world he poses. It is one of communication.
An adjective is the most complex human puzzle. it informs opinion rather than communication.
If I defined myself to thinking in adjectives, I would not have or reason to have the room to be Human.
Hahaha, the intro is genius
Great to see Sir Benjimouse of Magrathea at work in the lab. These poor humans with their simplistic understanding of language. Can’t even parse the great poem “Eeek” which contains over fifty million subtly interplaying concepts and reveals the answer to life, the universe and everything.
Stephen Fry is, indeed, an international treasure and treat. But it's ironic that he so casually throws out "miraculous" and "miracle" in his narration.
Good this. Many congratulations to Sir Stephen on the knighthood, overdue in my opinion! ✨🌟👍
Love the cling on hamlet.
I was watching this and it seemed familiar so I googled... BBC 2011, I've seen in before. A five-part series.
This is all Quite Interesting... 🙂
Thank You Sir Stephen & Co !
loving it, thank you
Thanks Stephen- I wonder if you interviewed another Stephen, Stephen Porges- and talked about evolution of language and evolution of our nervous systems. Polyvagal theory. I wonder what Stephen Porges might say about social engagement, music and the development of language. :)
thank you for posting
Wow, looking forward to this series very much! (Also, I'm sure the choice of font for the overlays was not accidental :-))
This is a very old series, first broadcast in September 2011. Who knows, but it's possible that the people working on it at BBC2 weren't yet aware that Comic Sans had become so despised in the world of graphic design.
"Mice can have litters every few months."
🙄Don't I know it. When I have to go away for a couple months, they take over my dresser. Ugh. 😑
This was really fascinating, thank you. I hope you'll put up the other episodes at some point.
That is a interesting thought that the need for language came from the need to cooperate to get food. Cooking, of course, being another of those miracles unique to humans.
thank you Mr Fry
Fry is fly!
He's a Sir.
He's been knighted 👏👏👏👏
Thank you Sir Stephen
Regards .
Oh the joy
I was supposed to be doing something else, but then the brilliance of Stephen Fry graced my TH-cam feed, and i declined to do that other thing as this is far better.
At @42:18 Barak Obama is mentioned, so I'm wondering when this film was actually made?
To answer my own question.
"
Fry's Planet Word is a documentary series about language. Written and presented by Stephen Fry, five hour-long episodes were first broadcast in September and October 2011 on BBC Two and BBC HD. "
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fry%27s_Planet_Word
22:36 I have the same issues with PTSD for 42yrs.
Take care
The interesting element is that the emphasis here is on spoken language, but then there is the whole other ball-game of written language. How was it we furthered one form of communication into another? Robert, uk.
When I was a baby, I didn't start talking until I was relatively old. However, according to my (obviously unbiased) mother, when I did start talking, I could already speak 'properly'.... and have never shut up ever since.
Hi. Inspired by Sir Fry.
If we imagine all the tools in a workshop as words and ourselves as the one who crafts, then we can see we are a witness, an observer of our creativity, one who produces within uncertainty. Something like that.
With knighthoods, you use the Christian name, in casual speech. Sir Stephen. More official, Sir Stephen Fry.
Just as with Damehoods, you say Dame Judy casually, and Dame Judy Dench, officially.
There is no situation when you put Sir or Dame, with last name, alone..
Though most British middle class would prefer Stephen or Judy, in general conversation.
If Stephen were married to a woman, SHE would be correctly, Lady Fry, not Lady Elliott, because her married title is only given to her because she is married to a knight. She has done nothing to earn a title - but marry a knight.
Once you get to an Earl level and upwards, daughters ARE Lady, for example, Diana. They earn their rank from being a daughter of an earl or better. So you can earn a Baroness (Lady) title for scientific research, or the honorific Lady, for being the daughter of an earl or better BUT if you MARRY a Baron, lowest level Lord, or better, you are Lady last name of husband or title. Because you married into it. You're not of the same blood and you did not earn it yourself.
If you are the wife of an eg earl, and your husband dies, if you have one adult son, who is married, he inherits the title and his wife then, is Lady husbands last name or title, and as the widow of the previous earl, to prevent confusion, you are called the Dowager Lady Whatever OR, more usually, Elliott, Lady Whatever. So she is still Lady Whatever, but reverts back to her christian name, as introduction, as her title was through.her marriage, not blood or amazing research or fast running and charity work.
@@georgielancaster1356 This went straight to the top of my list of favourite replies... Thanks! You're my number one!
Language is so important that we have it despite the increased risk of choking because of the modifications in the larynx required to produce speech sounds.
Interesting. Would like to hear your take on "The Alex Studies", an African Grey (parrot) taught meaningful speech by Irene Pepperburg, and also Koko, the gorilla taught sign language.
I tried to post the link for episode 2 but apparently comment with links get taken down without notice. The only way to get to episode 2 is through the inset at the end of this episode. This channel made it unlisted by mistake. Please, upvote so more people can see this.
If this is as good as the one on Swearing it will be great!
Language is our most powerful tool. It connects us to our loved one, allows us to communicate our needs and desires, it informs us. Language however, is not without its perils, when used to subvert, influence, and manipulate people in order to gain power. The clergy and politicians do this without even considering the consequences as long as it benefits them. These bedfellows have subverted humanity before the invention of writing by the Mesopotamians and continue to do so. Our saviour the American Demigod, now back on the throne will save us all, hopefully from himself.
I got a kick out of seeing the performance of the version of Little Red Riding Hood from James Thurber's Fables for Our Time. A bit surprised they didn't update the reference to Calvin Coolidge.
Congrats Sir Stephen. I'm just wondering why episodes 2 isn't available. It's a brilliant series, truly. Just like you ( I know you wrote it, I'm speaking in general). 😁🖖🇨🇦
Beautiful 😂
Stephen should look into the original words of the Buddha. I was and still an atheist, but I found those words to be extremely logical and profound
Might subscribe if we got all 5 episodes....
A knighthood is very deserved. But, I cant help think in comparison with some others that receive the same honour, Stephen is deserving of something far more distinguished and meaningful.
Stir Fry
Approx 44:00 ... asking the signs for Barak Obama and Madonna ... Stephen Fry missed the opportunity to ask how to sign his own name. Although perhaps he did, but it was too rude to include in the programme. I could suggest one...
Stephen Pinker 😮
30:18
Genius however in the Hitchhiker's Guida to the Galaxy
You are missing Holy Zaequin or just this cool guy 😂
i do love pinky and the brain :)
41:35 I would then have asked as English has become a universal language. Could English sign language become universal?
I am curious how and why differences in human voice come about.
Thank you, Stephen.
Babel pronounced correctly, rather than the way Americans (or a certain confused proportion of) pronounce it as 'babble', converting the word from its 'proper noun' form to an onomatopoeic verb.
How many takes did this take? 7:15
But if Koko the gorilla could do sign language even half of what was claimed, there was clearly quite a lot of bandwidth in her brain to connect ideas and use them -- whether expressing her desires and needs, or sharing her emotional state. She could combine the words she was taught in unexpected sequences to make new meanings.
Wonderful series, but are you having a laugh by using Comic Sans in the overlay texts...?
I'm so happy it's not just me. 🥲
🙂
I have to think a lot about saying "hello". Should it be, hello...or hellO!...hola...hey! I seriously think about it.
"the only species to have developed this miraculous gift of language"
Were not, we just don't understand the language of, for example, a cat, i've had four cats, they're definitely not just making noises. its just like i don't understand Polish (even though i had a Polish Grandmother, who i never heard speak it) but i wouldn't say its not a language.
14:47 they will speak, I promise!
Hmmm. Of course language began among men who needed it for hunting. It was only later, when women noticed how useful it was, that they started making vocalisations to catch the 2-year old before they fell into the fire or a fast-running stream, cooing to a distressed infant or getting the attention of a sister or aunt to indicate they had found some particularly succulent berries.
It's comforting that we can know with certainty what occurred in the distant past by comparing present day humans with our distant ancestors.
I would say that a spund used by a mother, to get a toddler's attention, came well before grunts or earliest conversations about hunting.
when is this from?
But also eating three hot meals a day.
There have not been 50,000 years on this planet, Stephen...
But, yes, one of the things you were correct about concerning the true origins of languages, and the way we learn such a code of sounds and keep them, tribally, is down to Miracle.
God given - nothing to do with apes...
God be praised.
Hallelujah!!
"In the beginning was the Word - and the word was with God - and the word was God"!
(The Christian Gospel of John, Ch 1, v 1. The Holy Bible).
There are a few issues with statements made in this show. It has been determined that dolphins actually give each other names, so language does, while perhaps incomprehensible to most humans, exist among dolphins. Also, the notion that learning a second language is harder as an adult is complete rubbish. As long as an initial language is learned at a young age, additional languages are actually learned more easily as an adult than as a child. It just seems more difficult because we have other priorities in our lives and don't attend daily language classes with structured study as adults.
Why can’t language have developed in order to teach more advanced tool making. Chimps seem perfectly able to coordinate attacks on other chimps and hunt together without more complicated communication than grunts and signs.
One should at least keep an open mind on the complexity of language of animals. The language of spermwhales for instance ( bigger brains then ours, far more evolution-time ) might even be a bit too complex for us to understand. And there is methodological problem: studies on dogs show that the meaning of there sounds depend on what their bodies show at the same time. You cannot separate language from other means of communications, it's interconnected.
Language comes with necessity and voice ability. When necessity in evolution creates more complicated speech, then other mammals will develop it. Why are birds able to imitate sounds then learn how humans use them?