Michael Erard

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Michael Erard is a linguist and author who writes about language, languages, and the people who use and study them. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Science, The New York Times, Aeon, and other publications. He is the author of several books, including Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners (Simon and Schuster) and Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words.

Everything Articles

A woman smiles at a baby in a crib, holding a toy while the baby reaches out, attempting their first words. They appear to be in a domestic setting.

The Past

In praise of history’s famous first words

While death-bed utterances are more famous, baby’s first words have influenced us too.

Abstract image with intertwined black and white wispy lines forming a chaotic, web-like pattern on a dark background.

The hallucinatory thoughts of the dying mind

Delirium is one of the most perplexing deathbed phenomena, exposing the gap between our cultural ideals of dying words and the reality of a disoriented mind.

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