The book ventures into the realm of human evolution through the lens of language, proposing a compelling yet contentious idea about speech being the fundamental factor that shaped humanity. However, the book departs from its premise of a scientific exploration of language origins, pivoting more towards a philosophical discussion. Contrary to expectations, the book does not delve into the scientific underpinnings of human language but presents a philosophical perspective.

Do you need to speak in public? If you do, you know how terrifying it can be. Fortunately, with Speech, you can rest a lot easier and be more confident.

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Speech: How Language Made Us Human by Simon Prentis; about the simple yet radical shift that turned our analog grunts and shrieks into words.

This book has nothing to do with how language made us human. As the author essentially says at the beginning of the book, the physiological mechanisms of human language are predominantly based on soft tissue, which doesn't fossilize. Therefore, we can't track the evolutionary changes that led to language.

This is basically a book of philosophy, a field of study requiring complex thought that can't exist without language. Apparently that's what the title means. Essentially the author uses logic to present his biased belief system. Everyone's belief system is biased, of course. But I didn't choose to read this book because I wanted to learn this author's opinions on stuff. I expected this to be a scientific analysis of the origins of human language, and it's not. There's nothing original or ground-breaking here. I've heard it all before.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.