The Language Puzzle (eBook)

The enduring mystery of how humans learned to speak [is] a romantic tale

Wonderfully evocative ... A highly original view of our musical origins

Takes the reader on a whirlwind journey through many disparate disciplines, generously dispersing interesting tidbits and ideas along the way

A book that has you making up your own theories about how grunts became speech and songs

Relating the evolution of the human lineage while attempting to integrate linguistics, genetics, archeology, and semiotics in proposing a holistic explanation for language evolution is no small task. However, in this remarkably accessible narrative, Mithen weaves a thoughtful and engaging account across time, bodies, places, and materials. Whether or not one agrees, in total or in part, with the assumptions and assertions in the book, it offers a bounty of valuable insights and has much to teach us all

The most perspicacious portrait of the role of communication among our remote predecessors that I have ever encountered ... A landmark book

A remarkably comprehensive biography of the single most important thing we all share - language - written with Mithen's wonderful ability to combine deep insights with a story engagingly told

An epic achievement that, more than any other book out there, rises to the challenge of elucidating the immense complexity that underpinned the emergence and evolution of human language ... keeps the reader deliciously hanging on

A tour de force of terse, fascinating clarity... A remarkable, vivid set piece: a montage that runs from the barks and coos of forest-dwelling primates to the grammatical written language you are reading now

Fascinating ... In down-to-earth prose, Mithen weaves a wealth of genetic, linguistic, and paleoanthropological research into a coherent tapestry, with surprising revelations about Stone Age communication as well as present-day language ... A stimulating inquiry into the origins of language

Mithen ... combines lucid prose with a lifetime of experience in this compendious exploration of linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, geography, genetics, and philosophy ... An expert education into "the most fundamental aspect of the modern mind

Extraordinary ... a page-turning dive into the mysteries of human communication