Michael Erard

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 and Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words, from which this article is adapted.