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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals about the Mindby Margalit Fox
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Imagine a village where everyone "speaks" sign language. Just such a village — an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness — is at the heart of Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind. There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now. A New York Times reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have set foot in this remarkable village. In Talking Hands, she follows an international team of scientists that is unraveling this mysterious language. Because the sign language of the village has arisen completely on its own, outside the influence of any other language, it is a living demonstration of the "language instinct," man's inborn capacity to create language. If the researchers can decode this language, they will have helped isolate ingredients essential to all human language, signed and spoken. But as Talking Hands grippingly shows, their work in the village is also a race against time, because the unique language of the village may already be endangered. Talking Hands offers a fascinating introduction to the signed languages of the world — languages as beautiful, vital and emphatically human as any other — explaining why they are now furnishing cognitive scientists with long-sought keys to understanding how language works in the mind. Written in lyrical, accessible prose, Talking Hands will captivate anyone interested in language, the human mind and journeys to exotic places. Review:"'The world of sign languages and cognitive research comes to life in this story of a remote Israeli village that's become a test bed for understanding how the human brain processes language. New York Times reporter Fox follows researchers, led by University of Haifa professor Wendy Sandler, to the Bedouin village of Al-Sayyid, where isolation, genetics and inbreeding have led to a higher than usual percentage of deafness in the population. In response, the villagers have created a home-brew sign language used by both the hearing and deaf. By studying this unique language, Sandler and her cohort hope to gain deeper insight into how the brain acquires and uses language. Chapters alternate between the painstaking work in Al-Sayyid and a history of sign language itself. Both are gracefully reinforced with vivid examples, from the early insistence of 'experts' that proper sign language must produce words in one-to-one correspondence with spoken language to a lively gathering in Al-Sayyid where conversation flows freely in six languages: English, Hebrew, Arabic, American Sign Language, Israeli Sign Language and the local sign language. Fox takes readers on a fascinating tour of deaf communication, clearly explaining difficult concepts, and effortlessly introducing readers to a silent world where communication is anything but slow and awkward.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"In Al-Sayyid, a remote Israeli village, many of the Bedouin inhabitants are deaf from an inherited condition. They and their hearing families have developed a sign language that everyone in the village has used for generations. However, as more and more of the village's children are educated in Israeli schools, they are learning Israeli signs. Linguists are hurrying to study the Al-Sayyid system to... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"This is a captivating and important book, minutely researched and vividly narrated, about an isolated Bedouin village where hearing and deaf people alike communicate in sign language. Such situations are increasingly rare and precious. Fox's book will be fascinating to anyone interested in the nature of human language or indeed in cognitive neuroscience." -- Oliver Sacks, M.D. Review:"This is a captivating and important book, minutely researched and vividly narrated, about an isolated Bedouin village where hearing and deaf people alike communicate in sign language. Such situations are increasingly rare and precious. Fox's book will be fascinating to anyone interested in the nature of human language or indeed in cognitive neuroscience." -- Oliver Sacks, M.D. Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. In the Village of the Deaf 2. "What Is This Wonderful Language?" 3. The Road to Al-Sayyid 4. The Sign-Language Instinct 5. Starry Night 6. The Atoms of Sign 7. The House of Blue Roses 8. Everyone Here Speaks Sign Language 9. Hyssop 10. The Web of Words 11. The House Built from the Second Story Down 12. Grammar in Midair 13. Hassan's House 14. A Sign in Mind 15. The House of Twenty Children 16. The Signing Brain 17. In a Wet Place Afterword: It Takes a Village A Note on Sources References Notes Acknowledgments Index What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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