InBeyond Words, Steven Connor seeks to understand spoken human language outside words, a realm that encompasses the sounds we make that bring depth, meaning, and confusion to communication. Plunging into the connotations and uses associated with particular groups of vocal utterancesthe guttural, the dental, the fricative, and the sibilanthe reveals the beliefs, the myths, and the responses that surround the growls, stutters, ums, ers, and ahs of everyday language.Beyond Wordsgoes outside of linguistics and phonetics to focus on the popular conceptions of what language is, rather than what it actually is or how it works. From the moans and sobs of human grief to playful linguistic nonsense, Connor probes the fringes and limits of human languageand our definition of voice” and meaningto challenge our basic assumptions about what it is to communicate and where we find meaning in language. By engaging with vocal sounds and tics usually trivialized or ignored,Beyond Wordspresents a startling and fascinating new way to engage with language itself.