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Edmund Blair Bolles

Babel's Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of Speech Hardcover – August 30, 2011

by Edmund Blair Bolles (Author)

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Babel’s Dawn is a saga covering six million years. Like a walk through a natural history museum, Bolles demonstrates how members of the human lineage came to speak. Beginning with a scene of the last common ancestor ignoring a bird as it flies by, he guides us through generations, illuminating how it became possible for two Homo sapiens to not only acknowledge the songbird, but to also discuss the meaning of its song.

Tracing the rise of voluntary vocalizations as well as the first word, phrases, and sentences, Bolles works against the common belief that the reason apes cannot speak is they are not smart enough. In this groundbreaking work, Bolles purposes that we now have substantial evidence that this age-old idea can no longer stand. With concrete portrayals of living individuals interwoven with evidence, data, and theory, Babel’s Dawn is a powerful account of a great scientific revolution

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Counterpoint
Publication date

August 30, 2011
Dimensions

5.84 x 0.89 x 8.58 inches
ISBN-10

158243641X
ISBN-13

978-1582436418
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About the Author

Edmund Blair Bolles is a former Peace Corps teacher who grew up in Washington, D.C., Paris, France, and Toledo, Ohio. His undergraduate degree is from Washington University in St. Louis, and he has a Masters in English from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in New York City.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Counterpoint (August 30, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 158243641X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1582436418
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.84 x 0.89 x 8.58 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #614,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #954 in Nature Writing & Essays
- #1,327 in Environmental Economics (Books)
- #1,356 in Linguistics Reference

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MIMI Woodbridge

A Fascinating Reconstruction of the development of speech

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2019

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I found “Babel’s Dawn” Facinating. It is enchanting to speculate that language evolved through musical, wordless communication. I recommend you read this fascinating hypothesis.

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2012

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I was expecting a detailed explanation of the speech mechanism. The chronological sequence of the speech developments
Is very eloquent. Easy to read.
Bb

2 people found this helpful

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David E. Perkins

An Interesting Viewpoint!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2012

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I got this from a Scientific American magazine recommendation, so hoped it would be interesting - it was. The presentation is quite unusual as a museum 'walk through' guide looking at various tableaus on the way. I won't go into much detail as you can 'search inside this book' yourself anyway. You can also go onto his blog to see his literary research over the years if you are considering the book.

But as an attempt to explain the development of speech as a gradual evolutionary process, rather than a sudden all-in-one jump, as some researchers argue, makes great sense to me. I like the suggestion that the very first vocalisations might have been a social replacement for grooming, as a result of body hair loss!

Personally, the linguistic stress on sentence/phrase structure was less interesting to me, but it would interest others more, and anyway it was intended to support his arguments about increasing vocal complexity, so was no doubt necessary.

Some good bits about current reseach in various areas, such as neurology, which give support to his suggestions, though he is quite open that a lot has to be speculation given the lack of fossil evidence (but he does tentatively explain how a fossil hyoid bone, used in vocalisation, which shows distinct differences between homo and other great apes, could provide for an improved vocalisation. And he views a lot of the differences between us and apes as being not so much because they LACK all of the language abilities we have, but rather because they lack any social motivation to interact with others in a group, except at the straight 'MY survival alone' level.

He fully accepts that it could all be viewed as a 'Just So' story, but says

"What would I say to any creationists who object that it is all 'mere hypothesis'? Grant the point, but add as well that it is based on evidence and will be modified by better evidence, not by dogma"

I'm reminded of the far grander 'Just So' story by Charles Darwin (given the substantial evidential problems at the time), providing a powerful explanatory theme which made such sense, and which in the time following has proved so valuable and gained so much more support from scientific research and discovery. As HE said

"There is grandeur in this view of life ..."

I would recommend this as a stimulating read.

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Babel's Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of Speech Hardcover – August 30, 2011

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