Speech: A Natural History

This study traces the evolution of the signal calls of anthropoid apes and early hominins to the vocalized phonic utterances of speech.

Amongst other aspects, the study innovatively discusses:

•   the isomeric evolution of the signal call by the recording of the signal’s frequency components,

•   the acoustic origin of the syllable,

•   the emergence of vowels from an indeterminate, collective vocalized tonal matrix,

•   the interval and intervalic subdivision as the common trait uniting dance, scalar melody and syllabic-prosodic speech, and

•   the coevolution of music and speech