As suggested by the title of this review, Echolalias: On the Forgetting of Language is not a book that would typically be classified as a neuropsychology text. Rather, this is a book for linguists and those interested in the history of linguistics and language. There are, though, a few chapters that pertain more directly to clinical neuropsychology.

With no preface or forward, one is initially left wondering what this book and, likewise, each chapter set out to accomplish. At times, it seems to represent a running commentary of the author who clearly has extensive knowledge regarding the history and philosophy of linguistics. At other times, chapters present a single topic with case information. Finally, in other instances, chapters revolve around a historical piece related to literature or the evolution of language. In retrospect, it becomes clearer that Echolalias presents a philosophical overview of languages as they evolve and are then forgotten.

The first several chapters of Echolalias relate to philology. Philology is the study of “linguistics, especially: historical and comparative linguistics” and “the study of human speech especially as the vehicle of literature and as a field of study that sheds light on cultural history” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Reference Chomsky2008). The earliest chapters cover the emergence of an individual’s language from babbling through pruning of sounds to the formation of the phonemes of one’s eventual language. The text progresses to a discussion of languages evolved and then forgotten and replaced by new ones. To that end, Chapters 3 through 5 involve discussions of phonemes and letters of different languages and their history, with Chapter 6, Exiles, Chapter 7, Dead Ends, and Chapter 8, Thresholds, focusing on the loss of languages. In Exiles, the gradual supplanting of one language by another is outlined using Hebrew and Jewish scriptures as examples. This chapter includes discussion of lexical, phonetic, and grammatical issues as well as issues related to politics in the evolution of languages. Heller-Roazen also discusses the metrics of language as related to poetry in this chapter. Chapter 6, in particular, probably requires advanced knowledge of linguistics to truly appreciate its content.

In Chapter 9, Strata, Heller-Roazen discusses ways in which past languages remain in present ones in some form, “stratified residues of a past” (p. 77), akin to layers of sediment in geological history. Similarly, in Chapter 10, Shifts, one reads about languages in which much of the old is retained in the new (e.g., creoles and pidgins). In this chapter, Heller-Roazen discusses the evolution of, and relationship between, various languages. Chapter 11, Little Stars, follows with discussion of similarities between languages, with echoes of one within another, with respect to any of a number of attributes, such as prosody, a single sound, a word, and so on. In this chapter, Heller-Roazen spends time discussing Indo-European linguistics, etymology, philology, and the asterisk. Like Chapter 6, Chapter 11 probably requires advanced knowledge of linguistics to fully comprehend and appreciate its content.

In Chapter 12, The Glimmer Returns, Heller-Roazen notes the movement from philology to structuralism in linguistic research in the 20th century. In contrast to interest in restructuring the theoretical Indo-European protolanguage, linguistics, as described by Chomsky, became “concerned with the problem of determining the fundamental underlying properties of successful grammars” [p. 114; citation of Chomsky’s (1957) Syntactic Structures, p. 11]. The chapter gets its name, though, from further discussion of the asterisk (as in the previous chapter), which reportedly has a function in the study of grammar that is distinct from that in Indo-European studies. In Chapter 13, The Writing Cow, Heller-Roazen invokes an Ovidian fable, Metamorphoses, to illustrate the concept of the transformation of one language into another. This chapter represents a philosophical discussion of languages that once existed and now are transformed.

Jumping ahead a bit, Chapter 16, Hudba, will stimulate thought and generation of hypotheses, some tested and some perhaps not, regarding the development of second and subsequent languages. More specifically, this chapter leaves one contemplating language as it is observed in consciousness, dreaming, and metacognition. Hudba includes discussions of Dante and the three-volume autobiography of Elias Canetti (1974, 1979, and 1985). Canetti is a gentleman who grew up learning several languages. Canetti describes himself as acquiring a second “mother tongue” by force and imitation. The acquired second mother tongue ultimately becomes his primary language (German) in which many of his pre-German memories are later rendered. Fascinatingly, however, very dramatic memories continued to be retained by him in his original primary language (Ladino; medieval Judeo-Spanish). Canetti’s unusual experience with acquiring a new primary language is discussed in the context of Dante’s differentiation between primary and secondary languages in which the primary language is thought to be acquired through imitation without rules, while the secondary language is learned methodically and deliberately with mastery of the grammatical rules.

As mentioned, in addition to the above chapter, there are specific areas discussed that will elicit the interest of the clinician. Those include a chapter on aphasias, a chapter reviewing cases of fairly normal speech in spite of aglossostomography (“A Mouth Without a Tongue”), and a chapter reviewing a case of schizophrenia in which an individual with mental illness sought to forget his mother tongue. The latter two chapters present rare clinical phenomena related to language that fit within the rubric of clinical neuropsychology. First, Chapter 14, The Lesser Animal, will spark interest in those neuropsychologists seeking historical knowledge related to aphasia, though it is not a comprehensive review of such history. In this chapter, it is noted that scholars have learned about language through the study of varying forms of aphasia. Heller-Roazen discusses Freud’s view on aphasias, which reportedly “pitted Freud against the bulk of neurological doctrines” that were based on the findings of Broca (p. 133). He also briefly discusses Jakobson’s “simplification of language to explain its complexity,” (p. 132). Heller-Roazen specifically mentions Jakobson (1941) study, Child Language, Aphasia, and Phonological Universals, tracing “the emergence and decay of speech, from infants who could not yet speak to those adults who could no longer speak.” Jakobson later, according to Heller-Roazen, “returned to the analysis of aphasic disorders to define the double axes that.…characterized all fully realized speech patterns: the axis of selection (or contiguity) and that of combination (or similarity).” In addition to Broca, Freud, and Jakobson, the works of Wernicke, Lichtheim, and Jackson are mentioned to varying degrees.

Next, in Chapter 15, Aglossostomography, Heller-Roazen summarizes two cases of grossly intact speech in the presence of no tongue. The first was Roland’s (1630) case of a 6-year-old boy who lost his tongue to infection secondary to small pox. In this case, the boy retained the ability to speak intelligibly, presumably relying on gums, palate, throat, and teeth to accommodate speech function. The second was a case described by de Jussieu (1718). This was of a young girl who was reportedly born without a tongue, yet developed intelligible speech. Also related to clinical issues is the case described in Chapter 17, Schizophonetics. This chapter reviews the case of Louis Wolfson, an author who describes his own struggle to free himself of his mother tongue. The author is a student/expert in the field of language who describes himself as schizophrenic. He uses his talent and knowledge regarding languages to rid himself of any remnant, spoken or heard, of his first language.

Most of the later chapters, Chapters 18–21, provide anecdotes from history and literature that relate to the forgetting of language. In the very brief Chapter 18, A Tale of Abū Nuwās, Heller-Roazen discusses the biography, written by Ibn Manzūr, of an aspiring poet who later became an important figure of the classical Arabic literary tradition. In Chapter 19, Persian, Heller-Roazen relates the tale of a poet who wrote poetry in a language he had learned, mistakenly believing the language was Persian. Chapter 20, Poets in Paradise, includes a discussion of two literary masterpieces written in the form of a letter and a reply by two poets originally from Syria in the 11th century. The first is a letter of introduction and penitence. The reply becomes known as The Epistle of Forgiveness, which is compared to the work of Dante Alighieri. Finally, Chapter 21, Babel, recounts the story of the Tower of Babel from the 11th chapter of Genesis. Related to the discussion of the diversification of languages, Heller-Roazen discusses “Dante’s reflection on the origin and structure of human speech.” These final chapters exemplify the philosophical nature of the book, Echolalias.

While generally not neuropsychology, Echolalias: On the Forgetting of Language may be of interest to those with a passion for linguistics and literature. Heller-Roazen clearly has a deep understanding and knowledge base in historical linguistics and literature. However, a broader audience may benefit from this book were the author’s thoughts pulled together in a preface and then in a concluding chapter; that is, at times, the underlying meaning or points he strives to make are not necessarily obvious, at least to the less astute or untrained linguist. As noted above, there are areas that will peak the interest of those less passionate about linguistics, though a more direct route to learning about those may be to go to the original sources as cited above.