Babel's dawn
Subtitle: a natural history of the origins of speech
By: Edmund Blair Bolles
Publisher: Counterpoint; Distributed by Publishers Group West
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Berkeley, CA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9781582436418
Subjects: Evolution; Speech; Language and languages; Oral communication
Description: "Babel's Dawn is a saga covering six million years. Like a walk through a natural history museum, Edmund Blair Bolles demonstrates how members of the human lineage came to speak. Beginning with a diorama of the last common ancestor ignoring a bird as it flies by, he guides us through generations, illuminating how it became possible for two Homo sapiens not only to acknowledge the songbird, but also to discuss the meaning of its song. Tracing the rise of voluntary vocalizations as well as the first word, phrases, and sentences, Bolles works against the common belief that the reason apes cannot speak is they are not smart enough. In this groundbreaking work, Bolles proposes that we now have substantial evidence that this age-old idea can no longer stand. With concrete portrayals of living individuals interwoven with evidence, data, and theory, Babel's Dawn is a powerful account of a great scientific revolution."--P. [2] of jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.