Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution
by Jean Aitchison
Human language is a weird communication system: it has more in common
with birdsong than with the calls of other primates. Jean Aitchison explores
the origins of human language and how it has evolved. She likens the search
to a vast prehistoric jigsaw puzzle, in which numerous fragments of evidence
must be assembled. Such evidence is pieced together from a mixture of linguistic
and nonlinguistic sources such as evolution theory, archaeology, psychology,
and anthropology. This is an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the
origins and evolution of human language.
