Hi Sylvia, exact same way about John McWhorter in his voice! I also listen to hundreds of hours of his linguistics lectures over the Covid pandemic, and they gave me immense comfort as well. His voice does suit souls!!!
On the subject of delivery speed, which you clearly pride yourself in, please remember that people aren't computers. Words aren't just bits of data. The musicality of one's speech, the tempi, rhythms, and countless nuances of sound is how we register or elicit emotion, and has as much or more impact than literal meaning. When treating a podcast like a horse race, you run the risk of people understanding what you say, but caring a lot less -- and having it stick less too, as emotion is a key component in memory formation.
@@CommittedFounderyes, the archetypal fast-talking salesman, such as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. Subjectively, there is just something less trustworthy about a fast speaker.
I quite agree. Johns intonation and cadence to his speech is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me to. Its not affected, it just comes from the flavours of what it is he is talking about.
I taught Prof. McWhorter's "Cosmopolitan Tongue" thought experiment essay for many years. It's nice to hear his somewhat more moderated thoughts on the multiplicity (and death) of languages in our world. This talk has also made me want to seek out his academic work on creoles.-- Keenan Norris, Associate Prof. of English at San Jose State
You conducted this interview excellently -- thoughtful, original questions that clearly had John thinking. I'm sure that he was grateful for the originality too, given how many interviews about his more political side address the same questions over and over. Subscribed!
Excellent interview. More linguists please! Dr. McWhorter is insightful and interesting as always and the interviewer had some very thought-provoking questions.
Wonderful video. The discussion about creole languages was particularly fascinating. The process of people with no common tongue inventing a new language (with bits of the old ones) out of necessity (because they were enslaved or colonized in most cases) speaks to the awesome capabilities of human beings. And as John and the host opine, these languages are actually superior in many ways to the big languages because they don’t adopt a lot of the confusing legacy grammar, such as gendering.
Between Shakespeare and the King James Bible, English has changed LESS in 400 years than Japanese has changed in the past century. A lot of the change is the infusion of words from other languages, primarily American English, which have displaced perfectly good Japanese words.
Dr. McWhorter--re: speed of communication being approximately the same for all languages. Maybe not. Performances of Shakespeare plays in the Original Pronunciation are significantly faster than performances in modern pronunciation--the OP performance of Romeo & Juliet at the Globe Theatre in London--same cast--was a good 10 minutes shorter than the modern pronunciation version.
Language extinction is for sure an important and neglected longtermist issue (though understandably, one may choose to prioritise other issues over it)
Shakespeare is far from "impossible," Prof. McWhorter-- Keenan Norris, Associate Prof. of English at San Jose State I've been reading and watching Shakespeare since I was a teenager in southern California and studied his plays at length in graduate school despite my focus being on 20th century African-American literature
Developing Artificial Intelligence that can learn, and thus preserve, small languages would be a major benefit of AI. We could have an AI that can "ride along" with a native speaker who is bilingual, and preserve that language knowledge, and oral traditions. Preserving languages can be an important source of information about the development of those languages, just as the ability to compare modern languages from Europe to India revealed the common Indo-European source of that vast array. It informs the migration of human populations, alongside DNA studies and archeology.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nickname "Mormons") send about 30,000 young men and women age 18 to 20 on two year volunteer missions around the world. The membership worldwide is 16 million, with 6 million in the US and Canada. While many serve in their own countries, or in other countries with the same language (e.g. Mexicans serving in Argentina, English in New Zealand), a large percentage serve in nations with a different language. About 10% of the young missionaries from Japan serve in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Many Americans serve all over the world, including Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Polynesia. Tonga is 60% Latter-day Saints. There are more Spanish-sp3akers than English speakers in the Church. One result is that the Church's Brigham Young University in Utah, and its sister schools in Idaho and Hawaii, have the highest level of non-English fluency among colleges in the US. In an average Church stake in the USA--sort of a diocese of 6 to 10 congregations--even in a small community in Wyoming, you can find people who speak 15 different languages. Among the 3.5 million people in Utah, about 60% members of the Church, or 2 million, standing on a downtown corner during the lunch hour, you can ask for help in a language other than English, and find someone who understands you within 15 minutes or less. Of the top 15 leaders of the Church, one is German, another Brazilian. Another is a Chinese American who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and worked in Asia with the US State Department. Another worked for years in Japan. Another is fluent in Swedish, while several others speak Spanish. The Church has a worldwide monthly magazine that is printed in 90 languages, and has simultaneous translation for its semi-annual General Conferences originating in Salt Lake City brosdcast via the Internet. Many Church members outside the English speaking countries are also fluent in English, working alongside American missionaries and attending Church universities.
Professor McWhorter’s objectivity makes him a true gem.
Hearing John McWhorther's voice sooths me too amid all this madness :)
Hi Sylvia, exact same way about John McWhorter in his voice! I also listen to hundreds of hours of his linguistics lectures over the Covid pandemic, and they gave me immense comfort as well. His voice does suit souls!!!
Note that I couldn't find any research backing up the speculation on speaking speed at 33:30, or indeed any research on that topic at all! - Rob
On the subject of delivery speed, which you clearly pride yourself in, please remember that people aren't computers. Words aren't just bits of data. The musicality of one's speech, the tempi, rhythms, and countless nuances of sound is how we register or elicit emotion, and has as much or more impact than literal meaning. When treating a podcast like a horse race, you run the risk of people understanding what you say, but caring a lot less -- and having it stick less too, as emotion is a key component in memory formation.
@@CommittedFounderyes, the archetypal fast-talking salesman, such as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. Subjectively, there is just something less trustworthy about a fast speaker.
John is utterly hilarious and enjoyable to listen to.
I quite agree. Johns intonation and cadence to his speech is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me to. Its not affected, it just comes from the flavours of what it is he is talking about.
I taught Prof. McWhorter's "Cosmopolitan Tongue" thought experiment essay for many years. It's nice to hear his somewhat more moderated thoughts on the multiplicity (and death) of languages in our world. This talk has also made me want to seek out his academic work on creoles.-- Keenan Norris, Associate Prof. of English at San Jose State
You conducted this interview excellently -- thoughtful, original questions that clearly had John thinking. I'm sure that he was grateful for the originality too, given how many interviews about his more political side address the same questions over and over. Subscribed!
Excellent interview.
More linguists please! Dr. McWhorter is insightful and interesting as always and the interviewer had some very thought-provoking questions.
Wonderful video. The discussion about creole languages was particularly fascinating. The process of people with no common tongue inventing a new language (with bits of the old ones) out of necessity (because they were enslaved or colonized in most cases) speaks to the awesome capabilities of human beings. And as John and the host opine, these languages are actually superior in many ways to the big languages because they don’t adopt a lot of the confusing legacy grammar, such as gendering.
Is Middle English a creole language that grew from the geographic association of Old English and Norman French after 1066?
The Neil DeGrasse Tyson of linguistics. As a Startalk subscriber, I loved this conversation!
The Neil de grasse Tyson of linguistics is a massive insult to mcwhorter.
NDT is an arrogant, irrational asshole. JM is not.
Between Shakespeare and the King James Bible, English has changed LESS in 400 years than Japanese has changed in the past century. A lot of the change is the infusion of words from other languages, primarily American English, which have displaced perfectly good Japanese words.
Dr. McWhorter--re: speed of communication being approximately the same for all languages. Maybe not. Performances of Shakespeare plays in the Original Pronunciation are significantly faster than performances in modern pronunciation--the OP performance of Romeo & Juliet at the Globe Theatre in London--same cast--was a good 10 minutes shorter than the modern pronunciation version.
Language extinction is for sure an important and neglected longtermist issue (though understandably, one may choose to prioritise other issues over it)
Shakespeare is far from "impossible," Prof. McWhorter-- Keenan Norris, Associate Prof. of English at San Jose State
I've been reading and watching Shakespeare since I was a teenager in southern California and studied his plays at length in graduate school despite my focus being on 20th century African-American literature
Developing Artificial Intelligence that can learn, and thus preserve, small languages would be a major benefit of AI. We could have an AI that can "ride along" with a native speaker who is bilingual, and preserve that language knowledge, and oral traditions. Preserving languages can be an important source of information about the development of those languages, just as the ability to compare modern languages from Europe to India revealed the common Indo-European source of that vast array. It informs the migration of human populations, alongside DNA studies and archeology.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (nickname "Mormons") send about 30,000 young men and women age 18 to 20 on two year volunteer missions around the world. The membership worldwide is 16 million, with 6 million in the US and Canada. While many serve in their own countries, or in other countries with the same language (e.g. Mexicans serving in Argentina, English in New Zealand), a large percentage serve in nations with a different language. About 10% of the young missionaries from Japan serve in the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Many Americans serve all over the world, including Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Polynesia. Tonga is 60% Latter-day Saints. There are more Spanish-sp3akers than English speakers in the Church. One result is that the Church's Brigham Young University in Utah, and its sister schools in Idaho and Hawaii, have the highest level of non-English fluency among colleges in the US. In an average Church stake in the USA--sort of a diocese of 6 to 10 congregations--even in a small community in Wyoming, you can find people who speak 15 different languages. Among the 3.5 million people in Utah, about 60% members of the Church, or 2 million, standing on a downtown corner during the lunch hour, you can ask for help in a language other than English, and find someone who understands you within 15 minutes or less. Of the top 15 leaders of the Church, one is German, another Brazilian. Another is a Chinese American who speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and worked in Asia with the US State Department. Another worked for years in Japan. Another is fluent in Swedish, while several others speak Spanish. The Church has a worldwide monthly magazine that is printed in 90 languages, and has simultaneous translation for its semi-annual General Conferences originating in Salt Lake City brosdcast via the Internet. Many Church members outside the English speaking countries are also fluent in English, working alongside American missionaries and attending Church universities.