The Dawn of Language. The Path from Monkey Chatter to Human Speech: A Story of How We Began to Speak

From the book:
«— Dad, why can't monkeys talk?
— Because they are animals. Animals can't talk.
— But, Dad, you said that people are animals too. Why can people talk then?
And then Dad gives in. He will need to write a whole... book to answer this question.
The very book that you are holding in your hands now».

From the book:
«It is commonly believed that language serves us solely for communication through the transmission of messages. Some scientists hold the view that language, in its original intent, was closer to music or song and conveyed the same information as the nightingale's trills. However, for language to evolve into something like what it is today, the function of conveying meaningful messages must have existed at an early stage. It is logical to assume that thought language originated from communication language. Conclusion: the proto-language was communicative».