Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love Hardcover – October 15, 2024

Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love by Julie Sedivy is a deeply engaging and fascinating book about language — how we shape it and how it shapes us, our perceptions and society. Now a doctor of linguistics, Sedivy learned to speak multiple languages as a child, adding the richness of learned experience to her academic expertise. Even better, she’s a truly talented writer.Early on, she details how her unique childhood was shaped by language:“I felt I was made of language—that my soul was the product of all the language fragments that had blown my way and accumulated into a semblance of a whole, all of them held together by my ardor for their alchemies of sound and meaning.”Next, she provides a deeper analysis of the simple miracle underlying the birth and evolution of language, something we so often take for granted in the moment.“Language was created word by word, each word conceived in a moment of yoked attention, one person proposing and another acquiescing to a particular union of sound and meaning. Language is the totality of such moments, multiplied within the kaleidoscope of an entire community.”Later, the book moves into how we begin learning language at birth (and even sooner) and how that process feeds into efforts to understand the world around us.“The more we come to know, the more our words become private islands from which we scan the horizon for approaching ships.”Ultimately, as Sedivy points out, language is a shared endeavor that underlies, supports and shapes the thing that makes humans so unique: our ability to socialize:“The loneliness of private meanings is intolerable, and because of this, we search for enclaves of agreement.”And far from a static, closed system, language is fluid and ever-evolving.“…dictionaries—perhaps like all sacred texts—are not legal prescriptions but approximate records of the agreements struck by people who decide to inhabit the same language. Lexicographers know they do not legislate.”Particularly appealing was a deep dive into how reading wholly depends on spoken language.”“Objectively, learning to read should be much easier than learning to speak a language; it is far less impressive an achievement. To break into the written word, all one has to do is discover the trick of matching a handful of visual marks on the page with certain sounds. The rest is parasitic on spoken language. But to learn the spoken language in the first place is to extract from rivers of sound enough bricks of meaning to fill a warehouse and then to discern all the secret, untaught rules that organize these bricks and combine them in limitless ways—a set of rules so complicated that it takes the lifelong labors of many linguists merely to describe them.”It’s a wild and deeply satisfying read, filled with insights, personal reminisces, interesting facts (such as how disfluency — speakers who use “uh” and “uhm” — actually draw more attention), and some downright infuriating insights about masculine versus feminine aspects of language and the barriers that can create.“…uptalk, a stereotypical marker of powerlessness, patterned differently for male and female contestants on the Jeopardy! game show. The lower a man’s winnings, the more uptalk was evident in his speech; for a woman, the more money she’d amassed, the more likely she was to lift her statements into questions, perhaps out of instinct to avoid the appearance of gloating.”The book ends with a challenging look at senescence and how mortality presages the end of our mutually beneficial relationship with language as we desperately try not to forget how to speak.“The words we once shared with certain others dissolve like the pages of a dictionary left out in the rain.”Equal parts scholarly work and love letter, I enjoyed immersing myself in her ode to language, learning so much and letting myself be carried along by her passion and lyrical writing. Highly recommend.

As a linguist who also learned a new language by total immersion and who has always been fascinated by language, I found this book both stimulating and moving. Informed by linguistics without being technical, but also soulful about how the joys and sorrows of language help us be human.

really enjoyed all the insights and new wordsthank you julie

The prose is dialed up to 11, to draw inspiration from This is Spinal Tap, but a few pages in she begins detailing how animal language has no meaning. This clanger made it difficult for me to enjoy the seductive prose. I am disappointed that she is not up to date on a topic she prioritizes; a read of Jennifer Ackerman's or Janine Beyus' popular books could put her right, as could looking into the latest explorations of prairie dog grammer, or anthropology on indigenous peoples who speak bird. This is characteristic of modern academics who do not at least dabble in emergence, that is, cross-disciplinary studies like those of Robin Wall Kimerer's Institute at Dartmouth. Since the sixth extinction is well underway, and species communication is becoming as rare as extinct languages are common, brain candy is a disservice to the reader, no matter how amazing the prose...perhaps she'll do a second edition? I certainly hope so!

Linguaphile is a book for language lovers written with beautiful language by a woman who obviously lives for it. Sedivy weaves her personal story through the somewhat academic book, keeping it accessible. Appropriately, her gift of language shines throughout. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I’m a polyglot plus was raised simultaneously under two languages. Sedivy’s book brings about the development, cultural differences in perception, miscommunications within the same language due to physical restraints as well on touching on a host of other topics. It was a great joy reading such a wonderful book in my opinion written by a fellow linguaphile.

Book was received quickly. It’s an interesting topic . Well documented.

The writer tried to hard to cleaver, Take a cue from Hemingway. If you can say it simply do so.