AJW's Reviews > Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind

This was a fascinating book about sign language. A linguist by training, journalist Margalit Fox writes about a study of an isolated Bedouin village containing many deaf inhabitants. Spontaneously, without any outside input, a new signed language was created, proving that the human brain has an inbuilt "language program" and that language does not have to be spoken to be a proper language that uses those parts of the brain reserved for language.

If you enjoyed Oliver Sacks "Seeing Voices", then you'll enjoy this book too. For anybody who is not sure whether the hand movements and vivid facial expressions of Deaf people is a "proper" language as opposed to gesturing and pantomime, then this book proves conclusively that sign language is an equal to spoken language.

I strongly recommend this well written book which explains academic linguistic studies in a clear way for the layperson.