Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Language Puzzle

  • How We Talked Our Way out of the Stone Age
  • By: Steven Mithen
  • Narrated by: Kerry Hutchinson
  • Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
  • 3.0 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

$0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
The Language Puzzle cover art

The Language Puzzle

By: Steven Mithen
Narrated by: Kerry Hutchinson
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
activate_primeday_promo_in_buybox_DT

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Dawn of Language cover art
Crypt cover art
Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science cover art
1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated) cover art
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being cover art
Cuckooland cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey cover art
A Story of Us cover art

Summary

The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human.

The Language Puzzle explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words.

Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Steven Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved; he explains how it transformed the nature of thought and culture, and how we talked our way out of the Stone Age into the world of farming and swiftly into today's Digital Age.

While this radical new work is not shy to reject outdated ideas about language, it builds bridges between disciplines to forge a new synthesis for the evolution of language that will find widespread acceptance as a new standard account for how humanity began.
©2024 Steven Mithen (P)2024 Profile Books Ltd
Words, Language & Grammar Anthropology Linguistics
Show More Show Less

What listeners say about The Language Puzzle

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    0
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Jakob Jørgensen

Me Tarzan

He doesn't get, that serious science can be fun 🙁 He poopoos the memes of pop culture, for no good reason. A mind virus he probably contacted from his woke friends.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!