The Seeds of Speech:Language Origin and Evolution Human languageis a weird communication system:it has more in common with birdsongthan withthe calls of other primates.Jean Aitchison explores theorigins of human language and how it has evolved.She likens thesearch to a vast prehistoric jigsaw puzzle,in which numerousfragments of evidence must be assembled.Such evidence is piecedtogether from a mixture of linguistic and non-linguistic sourceslike evolution theory,archaeology,psychology,and anthropology.TheSeeds of Speech is an accessible and wide-ranging introduction tothe origins and evolution of human language."We must be grateful to Jean Aitchison for so very readablyassembling a good deal of recent work that might seem to hint athow language began...the author goes out of her way to offer arestful read to all comers."