Babel's dawn; a natural history of the origins of speech. by Bolles, Edmund Blair - 2011

Counterpoint Press, 2011. Hardbound. New Book. Hardbound. Bolles, an author who has a blog that also discusses language origins, uses the idea of museum galleries that display scenes and characters to illustrate the origins of speech, beginning with the last common ancestor people share with chimpanzees (about six million years ago) to the first storytellers (about 150,000 years ago). He discusses several theories of language origins and proposes that humans alone speak because of a need that is not necessary for other species. He presents an evolutionary account of speech beginning with ape communication up to the use of single words, to the use of full sentences, concepts, and metaphors. No index is provided. (2011 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)