Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing by Daniel Tammet: book review

Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing: Encounters with the Mysteries and Meanings of Language (2017) is the work of British autistic savant, Daniel Tammet. As a child, he had difficulties with language because his mind was literal – therefore ‘take a seat’ at first confused him, whereas most people intuitively know that it means ‘please sit down.’ He explains most of this in his first memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2007).

In this book, Tammet writes a collection of essays to answer questions about the power of language. In fact, it is more about his exploration and explanation on the way communication shapes reality. From sign language to lip reading to the grammar of telephone language, Tammet discusses disappearing dialects, newly-coined words, non-words, commonly used foreign words in the English-language, Australian-English, and the works of autistic Australian poet Les Murray (1938-).

As a polyglot, he writes of foreign languages, of Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and maintaining the mother tongue in writing. He writes of translations and their challenges – translating faithfully versus translating with feeling, and how disparities change the meaning of words.

Tammet writes with passion about words and language and what they mean and why it’s important. ‘Humans in conversation … update and modify social reality from moment to moment. Meanings are broached, negotiated, tussled over … computers, on the other hand, inert and indifferent, ‘can’t care less’ about meaning.’ It’s worth a read.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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