How Language Began. The History of the Greatest Invention

"How Language Began" offers the reader an original, elaborate history of language as a human invention - from the emergence of our species to the appearance of over 7000 modern languages. The author challenges Noam Chomsky's popular theory of an... innate language instinct among our species. According to Everett, historically, speech developed gradually in the process of communication. The book discusses language from an interdisciplinary approach, on one hand, paying significant attention to the mutual influence of language and culture, and on the other - the features of the brain that allowed humans to speak. Although fossil hunters and linguists have brought us closer to understanding how language emerged, Everett's discoveries have shaken the modern linguistic world, resonating far beyond academic circles. While conducting field research in the Amazon rainforest, he stumbled upon the ancient language of a tribe of hunter-gatherers. Challenging traditional theories of language origin, Everett concluded that language was not a characteristic of our species. To understand this, a broad interdisciplinary approach is necessary, considering both the cultural context and the specifics of our biology. This book tells us what we know, what we hope to learn, and what we may never know about how humans transitioned from simple communication to language.