Robbins Burling traces language back to its earliest origins among our distant ape-like forbears several million years ago. He examines the qualities of mind and brain needed to support the operations of language; investigates the first links between signs, sounds, and meanings; explores the beginnings and prehistories of vocabulary and grammar; and connects work in field such as linguistics, evolutionary biology, and archaeology. And he does all this in a style that iscrystal-clear, constantly enlivened by wit and humour.