Language, it's coming....

A few resources to get primed for talking about talking....
Here's a TED talk by Steven Pinker about language and grammar.

Another fascinating Long Now lecture by Daniel Everett, a linguist and former missionary who has been studying the language and culture of an isolated Amazonian tribe for the past thirty years.

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce is one of the ultimate expressions of mutation in our written language. It contains more than 63,000 unique words, many of which were created by Joyce as he developed the unique vernacular the book is written in. What I find most interesting about Finnegan's Wake is that for me it's virtually incomprehensible as a written work but when it's read aloud it starts to make more sense. Here is a lecture by Terrence Mckenna going into some of the content and historical context of Finnegan's Wake. Halfway through he switches to talking about Marshall Mcluhan and has some interesting points about the impacts of print on verbal culture.