The starting points for human speech and language were perhaps walking and running. The dating of the FOXP2 gene, which governs the embryonic development of these subcortical structures, provides an insight on the evolution of speech and language. The traditional Broca‐Wernicke brain‐language theory is incorrect neural circuits linking regions of the cortex with the basal ganglia and other subcortical structures regulate motor control, including speech production, as well as cognitive processes including syntax. The chimpanzee lacks a supralaryngeal vocal tract capable of producing the “quantal” sounds which facilitate both speech production and perception and a brain that can reiterate the phonetic contrasts apparent in its fixed vocalizations. But when enough of us accept the story, we can organize and do things we couldn’t otherwise have done. is an BODYING GESTURE as the anatomical symbolic of the whole human body. The end points of the evolutionary process are clear. But, Harari vividly and imaginatively suggests, cut open a human body and you’ll find a brain and a heart and lungs, but no human rights. 8 BODYING - The Human has the anatomical, physiological and ontological. Speech also requires a brain that can “reiterate”-freely reorder a finite set of motor gestures to form a potentially infinite number of words and sentences.
The human tongue’s shape and position yields the 1:1 oral‐to‐pharyngeal proportions of the supralaryngeal vocal tract. We have unparalleled capacities for abstract thought, language skills, and social. We, however, stand out in many ways from them. Our closest living relatives are chimpanzees and gorillas. Today, we are the last humans, that is, the last of the genus Homo. Human speech involves species‐specific anatomy deriving from the descent of the tongue into the pharynx. Homo Sapiens represents the last of a long line of hominin races that once consisted of five different species spanning four continents.