#142 Classic episode – John McWhorter on why the optimal number of languages might be one, and other provocative claims about language

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University specialising in research on creole languages. He's also a content-producing machine, never afraid to give his frank opinion on anything and everything. On top of his academic work, he's written 22 books, produced five online university courses, hosts one and a half podcasts, and now writes a regular New York Times op-ed column.

Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in December 2022.

YouTube video version: https://youtu.be/MEd7TT_nMJE

Links to learn more, video, and full transcript: https://80k.link/JM

We ask him what we think are the most important things everyone ought to know about linguistics, including:

• Can you communicate faster in some languages than others, or is there some constraint that prevents that?
• Does learning a second or third language make you smarter or not?
• Can a language decay and get worse at communicating what people want to say?
• If children aren't taught a language, how many generations does it take them to invent a fully fledged one of their own?
• Did Shakespeare write in a foreign language, and if so, should we translate his plays?
• How much does language really shape the way we think?
• Are creoles the best languages in the world — languages that ideally we would all speak?
• What would be the optimal number of languages globally?
• Does trying to save dying languages do their speakers a favour, or is it more of an imposition?
• Should we bother to teach foreign languages in UK and US schools?
• Is it possible to save the important cultural aspects embedded in a dying language without saving the language itself?
• Will AI models speak a language of their own in the future, one that humans can't understand but which better serves the tradeoffs AI models need to make?

We’ve also added John’s talk “Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language” to the end of this episode. So stick around after the credits!

Chapters:

• Rob's intro (00:00:00)
• Who's John McWhorter? (00:05:02)
• Does learning another language make you smarter? (00:05:54)
• Updating Shakespeare (00:07:52)
• Should we bother teaching foreign languages in school? (00:12:09)
• Language loss (00:16:05)
• The optimal number of languages for humanity (00:27:57)
• Do we reason about the world using language and words? (00:31:22)
• Can we communicate meaningful information more quickly in some languages? (00:35:04)
• Creole languages (00:38:48)
• AI and the future of language (00:50:45)
• Should we keep ums and ahs in The 80,000 Hours Podcast? (00:59:10)
• Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language (01:02:07)

Producer: Keiran Harris
Audio mastering: Ben Cordell and Simon Monsour
Video editing: Ryan Kessler and Simon Monsour
Transcriptions: Katy Moore