The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved

by Steven Mithen

A top scholar reveals the most complete picture to date of how early human speech led to the languages we use today  

The invention of language began with the apelike calls of our earliest ancestors. Today, the world is home to thousands of complex languages. Yet exactly how, when, and why this evolution occurred has been one of the most enduring—and contentiously debated—questions in science.  

In The Language Puzzle , renowned archaeologist Steven Mithen puts forward a groundbreaking new account of the origins of language. Scientists have gained new insights into the first humans of 2.8 million years ago, and how numerous species flourished but only one, Homo sapiens , survives today. Drawing from this work and synthesizing research across archaeology, psychology, linguistics, genetics, and more, Mithen details a step-by-step explanation of how our human ancestors transitioned from apelike calls to words, and from words to language as we use it today. He explores how language shaped our cognition and vice versa; how metaphor advanced Homo sapiens ’ ability to formulate abstract concepts, develop agriculture, and—ultimately—shape the world. The result is a master narrative that builds bridges between disciplines, stuns with its breadth and depth, and spans millennia of societal development.

Deeply researched and brilliantly told, The Language Puzzle marks a seminal understanding of the evolution of language.  

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Linguistics, Language, Science, Anthropology, Sociology

544 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2024

About the author

Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading, having previously served as Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor. He received a BA in prehistory and archaeology from Sheffield University, a MSc degree in biological computation from York University and a PhD in archaeology from Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Sportyrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-blowing. A combination of some of my favourite things: neanderthals, language and ancient history. This popular science book tackles everything from how language started to where it is now.

Have you ever wondered how language started? Did two or more people try to gesture that certain things should have a vocal word for it? How could they even communicate, ‘hey’s let’s discuss making meaningful sounds’? And then what, how did they agree on words? Was it convention or just a few words at a time? This stuff fascinates me.

Did we evolve from chimpanzees? Apparently yes. But how? How do you just get taller, change the way you walk, the way you talk??? How does your face change, the size and shape of your brain??

This book has taken me on a journey of the how and why this is possible, with an ongoing layer on how speech began, evolved, and still evolves. I’ve gone from trusting genetic breakthroughs and a firm understanding of evolution, to an in depth one that breaks down the categories that make it all possible. And these categories are…pieces of the Language Puzzle. This structure has made it so much easier to understand.

In order for language to be where it is today, we needed many puzzle pieces. If neanderthals migrated the way our earlier ancestors did, would their speech have evolved? Would they have not gone extinct? The answers are here.

It took some time to get my head around some preexisting biases, mostly around small changes over long periods of time that result in drastic differences. We sort of resemble chimpanzees but can we really change that much to become bipedal, to have different head and facial structures? I won’t bore you with my ponderings but it took a lot to accept it for myself. This book answered many of my nagging questions.

I think a lot of readers of this book will have different lightbulb moments as some categories/puzzle pieces make more sense than others. One of my favourites was brain shape and size. To give birth to young with relatively larger heads would hurt a lot, right? So, how to biologically get around that dilemma…the brain continues to develop after birth. With that being the case, it can change based on the current environment around them. No instinctive language needed, it learns on the go. That’s my only mini spoiler, the rest you’ll have to discover for yourself.

That was just one snippet of insight into the book. There are many potential puzzle pieces that may fascinate other readers: how do babies learn language, singers might be interested in how the shape of the throat, mouth, nose affect tone and speech (compared with those of our ancestors)? How does working as a group or learning a trade affect language? There needs to be a way to co-ordinate the hunt or make the weapons, right? English teachers and language learners might enjoy the evolution of grammar and how word meanings change over time and how distance affects languages. Like when does a dialect become a different language altogether?

I rate this book a full 5 stars as the level of amazement was well beyond anything I’ve read in the popular science category. There are only two things that could improve the book in my opinion. In the category chapters (not intro or final wrap up), sometimes it was unclear where the research of others stopped and the author’s conclusions began. Or in other words, ‘is this the old theory or the new?’. Also, even though it’s a bit basic or for kids…I kinda wanted to see the jigsaw puzzle at the end. Each puzzle piece was fully explained including how it relates to the other pieces. It’s just the title has a jigsaw in it, so I wanted one too.

Ps 311 pages plus citations and references. Don’t be put off by the page count!

Thanks to NetGalley and Basic Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

In his introduction, Steven Mithen (British archaeologist, University of Reading) announces that a breakthrough is imminent in our understanding of the phenomenon of language, its diversity, and especially how humans came to language during the Stone Age. He then puts 14 puzzle pieces together to illustrate this insight: he draws on linguistics – of course – but also on biology, anatomy, anthropology, cognitive science, computer science, archaeology, archaeogenetics, etc. He sometimes gets very technical, and therefore demands quite a bit from the reader. In the final chapter he presents his provisional conclusion. And then you are somewhat disappointed: all credit to Mithen's audacity to delve into all those very specialized domains, but his view remains very speculative and, in my opinion, not convincing. Perhaps that is due to my initial expectations, because I had hoped that he would give an outline of the very difficult discussion about how languages ​​evolved. Perhaps I should have read the blurb more carefully. More in the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sense of History]

British archaeologist Steven Mithen (°1960, University of Reading, UK), does not shy away from taking a chance on a bold guess, as was already clear from his previous books. In The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science (1996), for example, he formulates a theory about how the human brain evolved in the course of prehistory into the exceptionally complex instrument that it is today. He relies mainly on (at the time) recent insights in the cognitive sciences, and adds his own expertise and rather speculative views, resulting in his ‘modular brain theory’. In After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC (2003) he reviews the steps in the transition from the Stone Age to the Neolithic, using fictional reconstructions of the daily life of people in different places on earth, and at different times. These are all fascinating publications, which are supported by extensive scientific references. I must admit that I have a soft spot for people who dare to think boldly, and enter unknown territory: they can sometimes provide breakthrough insights.

However, reality also has its rights. The theory proposed in Prehistory of the Mind never caught on in archaeology, and was also quickly rejected by cognitive scientists. And the fictional and non-fictional parts of After the Ice in the meanwhile are quite outdated in some respects. That may be logical, after more than 20 years, and it points to the healthy evolution of science, but it is probably also due to Mithen's own, speculative, approach.

In this book, Mithen is just as bold and tries to explain in 14 steps how prehistoric man came to language. Again, quite a few cognitive sciences are involved, but also a lot of other scientific domains. And again you see that the author dares to speculate, to construct his 'puzzle pieces' with a lot of 'maybe's' and 'possible's'. Quite a few of his arguments are based on just one single publication, and that certainly does not strengthen our confidence in what he's writing. So the book did not make a convincing impression on me. Of course, that does not take away that I have learned quite a few new things about language, human anatomy and so much more.

[Bharath · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book – tracing how we humans (possibly) acquired our modern language abilities.

There has been a belief that we might have a universal language gene. Noam Chomsky believed this was likely. But neuroscience has not found it, at least as yet. The diversity of the languages humans speak is astounding – there are over 7,000 languages in the world. 96% of the people though only speak 4% of these languages (280), with English & Mandarin being the most spoken. There are also several dialects – English alone has over 150. India has more than 19,000 languages and dialects spoken. There are several languages which are progressively being lost before being documented.

A substantial portion of the book is devoted to the language attributes the last common ancestor to humans and chimps potentially had. This is important to understand what part of our abilities are inherited. While chimps exhibit some levels of understanding, attempts to teach them modern language have largely failed. There is the famous case of Kanzi, the chimp, who had learnt hundreds of symbols and some level of human language. Nevertheless, as per the author, this can at best be considered to be at par with a 2-year old human child. It has been determined though that chimp calls do have similarity to words. A complex and gradual development of our vocal traits, brain and muscular control is believed to have got us our current language abilities. Iconic words (where the vocal closely associates with the meaning) mostly were the first (evolving abilities of our ancestors/chimp calls), with random words being added over time.

This is a very educational book written in an engaging style. While speculative, the author brings together the evidence we have from genes, fossils, body structures and historical records very well. Yuval Noah Harari argued that stories brought us together and made us powerful. Assuming that is right, modern language is a vital ingredient for creating those binding stories. At the same time, we also many times lose the intensity of the experience when using words, as thinkers such as J Krishnamurti have explained. A fascinating area!

My rating: 4.5 / 5.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher Basic Books and the author for a free electronic review copy.

[Katie Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting read - some of the more science-heavy aspects went over my head, but I loved the linguistics elements.

[Willow Heath]

Archaeologist Steven Mithen has blended an incredible range of disciplines—including evolutionary biology, linguistics and etymology—in order to answer the question of how human language developed in The Language Puzzle: How We Talked Our Way Out of the Stone Age. This is a thoroughly well-researched and eye-opening journey across early human history which reveals how language itself evolved.

My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/best-history-...

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting deep-dive into the beginnings of a "language" and how it has evolved since then. Based on scientific study across the whole world, well-synthetized and quite good when it comes to jumping across very different (in fact) topics: sociological, anatomical, genetical, behavioral, ..., etc. aspects of languages' origins.

What I like this book mostly for is the comprehensiveness - I'm a total layman, but I didn't have much trouble with following the content. Sometimes I was surprised with yet another angle the author approaches the topic from, but in the end it all made sense. The book gets more tedious in time (approx. 50-60%), even repetitive to some point. But my biggest disappointment was related to my biggest hope: I hoped that this book will uncover far more when it comes to the connection between the language and the intelligence. The direction & nature of this dependency.

I didn't get that, but TBH that was my bet, I haven't seen an explicit promise anywhere.
4.2-4.4 stars. But it's not a book for everyone - make sure you're really interested in this particular topic (of why & how did the humankind invent what we know as "language(s)", how do we learn languages, what are the common things between the languages, etc.).

[Prahlad Vaidyanathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointment. The subject is one that I find immensely interesting and I was really hoping for more than a Wikipedia entry, but that was not to be.

The author tries to cover a wide variety of topics from the linguistic abilities of great apes to recent discoveries in the field of ancient DNA. Overall, the selection of topics was also interesting, but I had my doubts going in as to whether the author would be able to do justice to all of them in a single book.

My doubts were well-founded. Some of my gripes:

- The book takes a broad overview of each of these subjects, without ever going into too much detail on any of them (with one exception - the chapter on Language Learning Models was very good).
- He freely quotes from other books (especially one by John McWhorter) and indeed, it feels like many chapters were written solely on the basis of one of those books. This assumes that McWhorter's book is good, which it is not.
- He speculates too much without any evidence to support his arguments. The chapter on "Fire" was a particularly annoying one to read, and so was his argument against Chomsky's Universal Grammar (a subject that is, I believe, still being debated).

Finally, the book ends on a somewhat flat note: The deep mystery of how we learned language remains just that - a mystery which cannot be solved because we lack evidence. In and of itself, this would not have been sad, but for the fact that the entire book was built on this "big reveal" which was not to be.

[Richard Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and accessible, if at times quite detailed, history of the development of human language. Mithen is obviously passionate about the subject, and has taken the relatively unusual approach of a true multidisciplinary approach. He has looked at archeology, linguistics, neuro-science, genetics, philosophy, language studies, history and more to present a compelling picture of the development of language. I wish more specialists would approach their domains with a real attempt to string together thinking from multiple domains.

It is though more two books than one. One of those fulfils the title of the book "the language puzzle", and the other is more a state-of-the-nation review of all things about our understanding of language and its origins. The two are related but not quite the same, and in doing the second Mithen did at times drift away from his central topic and into more peripheral subjects about languages.

Additionally, whilst on most occasions trying to find a balanced position between often quite widely differing views of specialists, he occasionally dismissed some ideas without much argument beyond his view it was wrong. Still overall I think its a pretty good book and I found most of his views believable. Aimed at the high end non-specialist looking for a fairly detailed explanation, with lots and lots of footnotes and cross references. This must have been a major work for the writer.

[Rajiv Chopra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Steven Mithen’s “The Language Puzzle,” but I do not consider it an outstanding book. There is much to enjoy and learn from in the book, but it is not a book that will excite the general reader. While writing this review, I confess I read the book faster than my normal pace because someone asked me to give it to them by a specific date.
The author started with a chapter on language and then dove into a brief description of the history of humankind. He then wrote about monkeys and apes and their language before moving on to words–specific and iconic. We learn specific and iconic words before we learn abstract words.
The chapters on tools were exciting, but the chapter on fire was fascinating. Not only would fire have added to the human vocabulary, but sitting around a fire may have lit the spark for storytelling, a vital and primeval skill of our species.
The chapter on language and the brain was illuminating. It clearly described the difference between our brains and the Neanderthal brain. While our brains are the same size, their differing shapes may have been a vital factor in helping us develop language skills.
There are excellent chapters on how language evolves and how words change. I also commend the chapter on language, perception, and thought. I do not know how language will change in the age of AI, and I doubt anyone will. However, if we depend on machines, will our brains shrink as we use them less in the future? I think it is a pity Steven Mithen did not speculate on this topic.
The concluding chapter is excellent, and if you do not wish to read anything else, devote some time to this final chapter.
His writing is lucid, and he breaks down the topics into comprehensible language. Yet, the book will appeal to a reader with prior knowledge or deep interest in this topic.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the information interesting. Some of the explanations are clear; some are not. The book uses mostly plain language but I felt that it sometimes devolved into jargon. The book lacked any author’s journey, which to me is a big factor in liking a book. I did not find the writing that engaging but the information was compelling enough to keep me going through the book. Overall, it was well worth reading. Thank you to Netgalley and Basic Books for the advance reader copy.

[Sam Worby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in his usual accessible style. A book full of interesting ideas. I am not sure I am wholly convinced by the argument - there seems too much uncertainty. But it seems like a possible version of history based on what we know.

I love the ambition and ideas. A great big thought experiment about the distant past. My kind of fun

[Gendou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well organized and well written, but not as substantive as I hoped. As an engineer, I live for that "ah-hah!" moment when the solution to a problem becomes clear. Like doing some algebra to derive a well-known physics equation. Or decrypting a hidden message. That's how solving a puzzle feels to me. This book oversells the state of evidence, and its author's theory.

We have evidence from archeology, anthropology, zoology, etc. It's clear human language fits in to the primate family tree as a shared trait. Like the peacock's tail it's a trait that's been heavily selected for and grown to dominate any good description of our species.

This book also talks about a well understood linguistic evolution pipeline where words begin as nouns and end up as part of the structure of speech.

Put these two pieces together and you have a kind of outline for the development of human language, from primate calls that refer to objects to full blown linguistic grammar. But this is very thin soup, and it doesn't feel very revolutionary to put these two facts side by side.

If you want to learn about our closest primate relatives, extant and extinct, read this book. If you've been a keen reader of science news for the past few decades, you can skip this book.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's in the title ("six-million-year story") and it's his specialty (Professor of Early Prehistory ) so I should have expected all the paleohistory, but it bores the hell out of me. He leans on McWhorter a lot, but he could have done with McWhorter's light style. The last part, where he's talking about ochres and shells, was dull and also might be sketch, given how this is used to speculate on stuff we cannot know. Also, not enough on written languages and yet discussion of spoken languages had a positivist feel that seemed reductive, meaning, the importance of efficiency in how language is transmitted. No proof is available for any of that. Other than that boring and sketch part, there were some interesting discussion of language acquisition in children, exploring the work of James Booth in this area, and the cultural language discourses involving Boas, Saussure, and Whorf (with inclination towards the latter's ideas, as you would expect from someone who is comfortable with positivist determinism) and some more recent work in this area. I really do appreciate the author's last chapter, which is a synopsis of the whole book, and that is definitely worth reading.

[Réka Oroszi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Language Puzzle by Steven Mithen was among my most anticipated 2024 releases. I usually don't get to read new releases until a few years later, so I was extremely grateful that I got approved for an ARC of this. Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, Basic Books for making that happen in exchange for my honest review 💜

The basic idea behind the book is that science is still not 100% sure how language originally came about, so the author figured if he pieced together the latest findings from archeology, linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and genetics like a puzzle, he would get the complete picture and would probably arrive at a solution.

You can pick up this book even if you don't know anything about linguistics. It goes back to the very basics, down to what a phoneme or morpheme is. The same goes for other topics, their basics are all painstakingly described before we get into it: the prehistory of humans, the structure of the brain, etc. That actually made me ponder whether all that was necessary and maybe the book could have been shorter without these explanations (it's ~600 pages long). However, I understand that the author's concept required him to paint a comprehensive picture.

While I said you don't need to be an expert in any of the topics to understand the book, I think it helps if you're REALLY interested in linguistics and anthropology. Without that, I'm not sure how enjoyable an experience it would be.

I am, luckily, extremely invested in all these fields, so the whole ride was a fun and eye-opening one. I did enjoy certain chapters more than others because of where my interests lie. I liked the ones about how infants pick up language and how they figure out which of the things they hear are words (super interesting), and the one about the brain and how it processes language (I'm always fascinated by brain stuff).

All in all, this is mandatory for all the language/archeology geeks out there (even better if you're both) and for those who are ready to tackle a 600-page book that doesn't go easy on the science lingo and data. It is very rewarding if you give it a chance and stick with it!

[FT · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably more like a 2.5.

Still, not at all what I expected. There was so much speculation intertwined with actual presentation of research findings that it was off putting. Especially the chapter on fire, and most especially, the concluding chapter.

Plus, there were a few outright errors in the book.

I did learn some things (especially the progression of human evolution related to anatomy). But due to the enormous amount of speculation and even “story telling,” I had to question most claims made in the book.

It’s too bad because I was really looking forward to reading it. So much so that the read all 399 pages when I would normally quit a book like this after a chapter or two.

[Maggie Gately · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hardest read I have had in awhile... and that makes me sad! I was so excited to dig into this book. I have been so into nonfiction recently and literally went to the bookstore to search for a physical one to bring with me on vacation and I chose this one. Wish I didn't! Guys also 30 dollars for a hardcover??? That is diabolical. Anyways- this book appealed to me on so many levels. 1. I loveeeee linguistics and find it to be such an interesting topic 2. Evolution too 3. It covered a broad variety of topics that I am heavily into like AI, psychology, children development. Pairing together all those topics sounded like a win win situation. But guys. It did not give what it needed to give. It was sooo hard for me to finish it. Literally was struggling. The flow was simply nonexistent. I was fuming when he kept bringing up facts and questions and then he was like BUT we won't be discussing that until future chapters like NO explain it NOW when you FIRST bring it up. It felt like a pass off and so lazy. Like do not bring it up right now if you don't wanna expand? If the book was shorter and the chapters were shorter that would have been fine, but here we are. ALSO I felt so much of this I already knew. If I hear about Lucy one more time in my existence - I will quit. I am serious. STOP BRINGING HER UP WE KNOW ABOUT THAT. Maybe some don't but I kinda feel like if you are picking up this book you know her and her importance. I just was like so bored and felt like I was sitting through a lecture. Mind you, VOLUNTARILY!!! Alas not Maggie approved. And I am just so disappointed.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally finished it! It was a slow start, mostly because I didn't like Mithen's certainty that he had discovered *the* origins of language. You can have a hypothesis, sure, but you weren't there, buddy! I decided to give the book another try and I am glad I did. I enjoyed the synthesis of anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Since it took a while to read and I didn't make notes, I can't point out any particular areas that were good/bad. Robust bibliography though, so it gives me some things to look into!

[Jeff · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy linguistics but found it challenging to get moving out of first gear while readying this book. (Pages seem to turn themselves in books I like.)

It's probably better suited to academics instead of hobby linguists like me.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, probably. Clearly there is much to think about here, but the idea of how synesthesia may have helped humans develop language is my favorite thing I'm looking into further.

[Aleks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely mesmerizing—one of the most beautifully written explorations of the origins of language I’ve ever come across.

It’s insightful, elegant, and deeply engaging.

If you’re short on time, the final chapter alone is worth a read, but honestly, I’d urge you to take your time with the whole thing. It’s an experience, not just a book. Very good job. Kudos to the author.

[Robin Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a word nerd who loves prehistory. It's like this book was written for me.

I was impressed with how accessible this book is. Mr. Mithen knits data from a dozen scientific disciplines into a clear narrative, not just of the evolution of language, but of the humans and world around it.

Lovely, engaging, informative and fun.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Language Puzzle by the University of Reading archaeologist Steven Mithen gives an interesting view on the development of language in humans. The book has a lot of detail and feels a bit like a university textbook. Mithen approaches the subject by presenting puzzle pieces across a wide variety of fields including archaeology, linguistics, genetics, evolution, etc. We hear a lot about chimpanzees, archaic humans including the Neanderthals, Denisovans and Homo Sapiens.

The book is a bit overly academic at times and it’s easy to get lost in the details. Archaeologists are forced to use what little material has survived over the ages. So, we end up hearing a lot about stone age tool making, hunter-gathers, fire, ornamental marine shells, cave art, as well as chapters dealing with the brain, genetics and how languages evolve over time.

The last chapter tries to paint a story using all of the puzzle pieces developed in the book. The author gives a narrative of how he sees language evolving in earlier hominids up to modern man.

I was glad to have read the book. I am more interested in language topics than in archaeology and the development of man. There were some interesting insights in the book.

[Luke Gompertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Immediately after finishing this book I was a little disappointed, since the conclusion doesn't amount to anything all that exciting. On reflection however, I've been surprised with just how much of the science was genuinely new to me – from animal vocalisations, to anatomy, to language acquisition – all fascinating topics in their own right. Sadly there are some unjustified digressions, so it's a book that benefits greatly from a healthy skim every now and again.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

the author suspects that readers of this book know at least 50k words and say about16k a day at a rate of between 100 to 200 a minute and reading at 2x that rate. children pick up about 7 a day.

[scifishm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very early in this book Mithen tells us that it addresses what has been called “the hardest problem in science”: how, when, and why language evolved.

Almost near the end of the book he says “I struggled for years [probably for years even before publication in 2006 of his previous book, The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body] to think and write about the evolution of language because there were so many different strands of evidence. Only when I imagined the challenge as a jigsaw puzzle, needing to find and assemble the frame and fragments, could I make progress.”

And so “puzzle” in his title has two meanings. (How words acquire more than one meaning is itself a puzzle that is addressed in this book.) The second meaning provides the organizing strategy for the book. Mithen’s “frames and fragments’’—the chapters in the book—present data, theories, methods, terminologies and findings from (get ready): linguistics (including computational evolutionary linguistics); psychology (mainly findings from the study of memory, perception, and attention); neuroscience (where does language come from in the brain); genetics (how have genes and environment interacted to enable linguistic capacities to develop and evolve); anthropology (for what it tells us about the social and cultural context of the evolution of language); paleoanthropology (how does the evolution of language graph onto what we know about human evolution); ethology (what can we learn from the behavior of monkeys and especially of apes, because they share a common ancestor with humans); philosophy (how language impacts perception and thought); and archaeology, Mithen’s academic specialty (what inferences can be drawn from artifacts and other “human debris.”)

The “frame” has two halves: an overview of human evolution; and what we know about language as of today. The other disciplines provide the “fragments.”

By telling us that language evolution is a puzzle with a frame and so many fragments Mithen easily dismisses old ideas about the evolution of language: that there are dedicated language centers or genes for language; or, crucially, that there is a such a thing as a universal grammar.

Even so, we need to learn about such things as the distinction between lexical words and grammatical words; the emergence of arbitrary and iconic words; the evolution of the rules of morphology and syntax; the role of prosody in the evolution of language; the four major word classes; the role of ideophones, positionals, and hierarchical phrase structure; the difference between dialects and idiolects; the uses of stops, nasals, fricatives and glides in spoken language; the limits on the number of words, clauses and especially embedded clauses that we can keep track of in a single spoken utterance; displacement; bigrams and trigrams; the iterated learning model; the language bottleneck; compositionality; object bias; cross-modal perception; concept boundaries; sentential complements; and the six layers of grammaticalization.

Most important we need to understand the difference between a generalized learning mechanism for the evolution of language and a dedicated language acquisition mechanism; the difference between the domain-specific and the cognitively fluid mind; and the essential role of metaphor in the development of language.

I am in awe of all the knowledge assembled here. (More than 600 citations in his bibliography; more than 500 notes—some of them short essays themselves! --in the text.) I also am grateful for the 17 well-conceived and well-designed figures in the book. They provide a much-needed rest; a pause to visualize what Mithen tells you so exhaustively in his text.

I admire Mithen’s bravery in drawing from so many different disciplines to construct his argument. Surely specialists in these disciplines will be eager to tear apart an archaeologist’s use of their work, no matter how carefully he has treated it. Surely they will agree with Mithen’s publisher who, Mithen tells us in his acknowledgments, originally “asked him to write a book about farming and acquiesced” when Mithen insisted on writing about the evolution of language instead. Mithen would have been on much safer ground as an archaeologist writing about that subject.

Surely specialists will notice Mithen’s frequent use of words and phrases like “suggests”; “may have”; “might be”; “appears to be”; “one might argue”; “might consider”; “perhaps”; “not unreasonable to suppose”; “we might suspect”; and “seems reasonable to conclude.” Will they accuse him of writing a “just so” story?

Then again, on a subject like this, where most of the conclusions must be inferred from a relatively and frustratingly scarce amount of evidence—NOBODY WAS THERE TO WITNESS THE EVENTS Mithen chronicles here—Mithen’s story convinces me. And if his story does not convince everyone who reads it, it will still be a necessary and rewarding read for anyone interested in the evolution of language.

An expert reviewer of The Singing Neanderthals said it “seems destined to become a landmark in the way experts and amateurs alike seek to understand the character and evolutionary importance of hominid and early human communication.” I expect that The Language Puzzle will be praised even more highly.

Thank you Basic Books for providing an advance copy in galley form for review consideration via NetGalley. Please note: Quotes taken from a galley may change in the final version.
All opinions are my own.

[Matthew Trearty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting information on the way language and speech has developed in humans.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange book - wonderfully thought provoking, but frustrating at times.

The Language Puzzle is exhaustively pedantic in many places…. most of the book covers:

- detailed (unnecessarily so in many cases) explanations of the anatomical development/evolution of speech and hearing mechanisms and cognition/brain development in different animals, and specifically in primates and in humans;

- the long (and contested) story of hominid, hominim, and human evolution, incorporating the most up-to-date evidence from paleo-archaeology and paleo-genetics: everything you could possibly want to know (and a lot more) about early human fossil remains and about stone tool-making and the decorative use of ochre, shells and feathers;

- the use and control of fire by animals and humans, and some wild ideas about the significance of fireside story telling in the development of human culture;

- and a crash course on linguistics, especially mechanisms for language learning/aqusition, how languages are structured and how languages change over time, and how language influences perception and thought.

After the overwhelming accumulation of details for these individual puzzle pieces, Mithen assembles them quickly in a recklessly speculative conclusion of how human language - and cognition and culture - developed over the past 6 million years. I was dazzled but not convinced.

There is a lot to chew on here:

- how human language is different from - and developed from - animal communications (“language”)

- iconic (sound symbolic) words are the first types of words that babies learn (and that humans probably used)

- synesthesia (cross-modal perception neural leakage) may be important in early language learning in children and in the early development of human language

- the “poverty of stimulus” in language learning/uptake in infants (and simulations), which Chomsky used as the rationale for the necessity of innate Universal Grammar wired into human brains, is actually a forcing factor for the development of language itself - learning bottleneck conditions shape languages so that they are generalisable, compositional, stable (i.e., syntax emerges through cultural transmission, not biology)... languages that cannot be learned/derived from limited inputs cannot survive

- humans (all animals?) have a perceptual bias towards objects (complete objects - e.g., dog, not its ears or nose or tail) and basic categories of objects (dog, not animal - superordinate, not terrier - subordinate)

- tool making can be used as a proxy for language development over time - more advanced language capabilities are needed for making (and improving) complex tools (requiring multi-step instructions) and/or special-purpose tools (requiring a name to act as a cognitive anchor - you can’t make a screwdriver without a word/concept for screwdriver)

- there are important differences between symbols (culturally learned and agreed to), signs (icons), and indexes (traces pointing back to something in the physical world)

- metaphors are important (even necessary) for abstract thinking, in making discoveries - connecting reasoning from the concrete physical environment to frame abstractions, and make cognitive breakthroughs… when metaphors become commonplace and stale (dead), we need to replace them with new metaphors to spark thinking

[Antonio Gallo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il libro di Steven Mithen è un'opera affascinante che affronta una delle questioni più complesse dell'evoluzione umana: come e quando si è sviluppato il linguaggio nella nostra specie.

Steven Mithen, archeologo cognitivo presso l'Università di Reading, costruisce la sua argomentazione partendo dalle evidenze archeologiche e paleoantropologiche. Il libro, pubblicato nel 2005, si distingue per l'approccio interdisciplinare che combina archeologia, linguistica, neuroscienze e psicologia evolutiva.

La tesi centrale di Mithen è che il linguaggio moderno si sia sviluppato relativamente tardi nella storia umana, circa 100.000 anni fa, coincidendo con quello che gli archeologi chiamano il "grande balzo in avanti" culturale. Secondo l'autore, questo sviluppo linguistico fu cruciale per permettere agli esseri umani di uscire dall'Africa e colonizzare il mondo.

Mithen propone che i nostri antenati possedessero inizialmente un sistema di comunicazione che definisce "Hmmmm" (Holistic, multi-modal, manipulative, musical, and mimetic) - olistico, multimodale, manipolativo, musicale e mimetico. Questo proto-linguaggio combinava gesti, suoni, espressioni facciali e imitazioni in un sistema comunicativo complesso ma non ancora grammaticalmente strutturato come il linguaggio moderno.

Il passaggio dal sistema Hmmmm al linguaggio articolato viene descritto come un processo graduale che ha coinvolto cambiamenti neurologici, anatomici e culturali. Mithen sottolinea l'importanza della pressione selettiva per una comunicazione più precisa ed efficiente, necessaria per coordinare attività sempre più complesse come la caccia cooperativa e la trasmissione di conoscenze tecniche.

Un aspetto particolarmente interessante del lavoro di Mithen è l'attenzione alle evidenze archeologiche: analizza come i manufatti litici, l'arte rupestre e i siti abitativi possano fornire indizi indiretti sulle capacità linguistiche dei nostri antenati. Ad esempio, la complessità crescente degli strumenti e delle tecniche manifatturiere viene interpretata come evidenza di capacità comunicative sempre più sofisticate.

Il libro affronta anche il dibattito tra le diverse teorie sull'origine del linguaggio, confrontandosi con studiosi come Noam Chomsky e la sua teoria della grammatica universale, Steven Pinker e le sue proposte sulla modularità linguistica, e Robin Dunbar con la sua ipotesi del "grooming vocale".

L'opera di Mithen si caratterizza per la scrittura accessibile che rende comprensibili concetti complessi senza sacrificare il rigore scientifico. È un contributo significativo al dibattito sull'evoluzione del linguaggio, offrendo una prospettiva archeologica spesso trascurata in questo campo di studi dominato da linguisti e neuroscienziati.

Dal punto di vista metodologico, il libro rappresenta un esempio interessante di come l'archeologia cognitiva possa contribuire a questioni fondamentali dell'evoluzione umana, utilizzando le tracce materiali del passato per ricostruire processi mentali e comunicativi.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review title: Prehistoric word puzzler

Continuing my recent thread into prehistory (The Dawn of everything: A New history of humanity and The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins) comes this deep dive into language which I learned about through the Delancey Place daily reading blog email. Turns out the short section Delancey Place clipped was probably the one that interested me the most out of the whole book, even though it serendipitously fit into sequence quite nicely.

Steven Mithen, a professor of prehistory who was referenced in both of my previous books, assembles the archaeological, anthropological, computer science, linguistic, biological, anatomical, genetic, and psychological tools he uses in his discipline to identify and assemble what he believes are the 15 jigsaw puzzle pieces that together make up the picture of the source of human language. Some of the pieces I found esoteric and of little interest to me, like the chapter on the comparative anatomy of monkeys and humans, and the studies that have tried to determine how close different primate species interactions are to human language. Rather than begin with contemporary languages and working backward through history and time to identify key inflection points for language in recorded history and the archeological record, he begins in deep prehistoric time to work forward. I appreciate that prehistory is his specialty, but so much of that piece of the language puzzle is not just pure speculation but ultimately unknowable. Working backward from what we do know and can extrapolate seems like a more reliable anchor for work of this kind.

To be fair, when Mithen is discussing the speculative he clearly identifies it as such and is conservative in his own statements about unprovable findings that some other researchers in the field have claimed point to early and more expansive uses of language. So to that extent he is a useful guide. Just wish he'd focused more on the now we can know. That would have been the book I thought I was getting.