How human language could have evolved from birdsong: Researchers propose new theory on deep roots of human speech
Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 15:00
in Paleontology & Archaeology
The sounds uttered by birds offer in several respects the nearest analogy to language," Charles Darwin wrote in "The Descent of Man" (1871), while contemplating how humans learned to speak. Language, he speculated, might have had its origins in singing, which "might have given rise to words expressive of various complex emotions." Linguistics and biology now researchers propose a new theory on the deep roots of human speech.