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Language and Myth

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The origin of language is one of the most fascinating anthropological, psychological and historical puzzles. A lot of ink has been spilled in attempts to provide a satisfactory answer to this big question, and with the advent of some more advanced scientific tools in recent decades we've been able to get a pretty definite picture of the human language. Nonetheless, this is one of the scientific topics that is fraught with a lot of controversy, primarily in terms of which of the several competing schools of thought makes the best case based on the available evidence. In other words, even with the most up-to-date scientific research there is still a lot of room for various conceptual and philosophical interpretations.

"Language and Myth" is a unique take on the origins of language and its connection to myths. The central thesis of this slim book is that language has its origin in mythical speculations and those gave language the necessary impetus for development. Ernst Cassirer makes a good use of many of the contemporary anthropological and philological sources, and he aims to present a unified picture of myth and language. However, even though there are several very interesting ideas in this book, the author is too fond of engaging in inflated verbiage. It is not always clear what are the points that are being made, or how various insights relate to each other. The book seems to be too steeped in speculative psychology that was very popular at the time but has not stood the test of time. Nonetheless, this is a valuable book to read for anyone who is interested in the history of ideas in general. However, for more recent understanding of the nature and origin of language I would recommend some other popular books, such as Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct."