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This volume provides the most up-to-date and holistic but compact account of the peopling of the world from the perspective of language, genes and material culture, presenting a view from the Himalayas. The phylogeny of language families, the chronology of branching of linguistic family trees and the historical and modern geographical distribution of language communities inform us about the spread of languages and linguistic phyla. The global distribution and the chronology of spread of Y chromosomal haplogroups appears closely correlated with the spread of language families. New findings on ancient DNA have greatly enhanced our understanding of the prehistory and provenance of our biological ancestors. The archaeological study of past material cultures provides yet a third independent window onto the complex prehistory of our species.

Ein grundlegendes Erkenntnisinteresse der Sprachwissenschaft bestand schon immer darin, den evolutionären Ursprung der menschlichen Sprache zu erforschen. Dieses Studienbuch bietet eine Einführung in dieses neu auflebende Forschungsfeld, indem es die vielfältigen Forschungsansätze einordnet, gegenüberstellt sowie kritisch abwägt. Hierbei wird besonderer Wert auf die Darstellung der wachsenden Zusammenarbeit zwischen der Linguistik und der Verhaltens- sowie Neurobiologie gelegt. Das Buch bietet eine Orientierung, indem es die zahlreichen Ansätze zwei grundlegenden Positionen zuordnet. Zum einen formulieren Forscher die Hypothese, die Sprachfähigkeit stelle einen Unterscheid qualitativer Art dar. Zum anderen wird betont, die menschliche Sprachfähigkeit zeichne sich gerade dadurch aus, dass sie in ihrer Komplexität in sehr kleinen graduellen Schritten entstanden sei und es daher keinen abrupten Bruch zu anderen Spezies gebe. Das Studienbuch diskutiert die sprachtheoretischen Grundlagen beider Positionen, zeigt Möglichkeiten der experimentellen Überprüfung auf und gibt kommentierte Bibliografien an die Hand. Obwohl sich das Thema der Sprachevolution großer Beliebtheit erfreut, fehlt bislang eine deutschsprachige Einführung.

Noam Chomsky and Robert Berwick draw on recent developments in linguistic theory to offer an evolutionary account of language and our remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire it.“A loosely connected collection of four essays that will fascinate anyone interested in the extraordinary phenomenon of language.”—New York Review of BooksWe are born crying, but those cries signal the first stirring of language. Within a year or so, infants master the sound system of their language; a few years after that, they are engaging in conversations. This remarkable, species-specific ability to acquire any human language—“the language faculty”—raises important biological questions about language, including how it has evolved. This book by two distinguished scholars—a computer scientist and a linguist—addresses the enduring question of the evolution of language.Robert Berwick and Noam Chomsky explain that until recently the evolutionary question could not be properly posed, because we did not have a clear idea of how to define “language” and therefore what it was that had evolved. But since the Minimalist Program, developed by Chomsky and others, we know the key ingredients of language and can put together an account of the evolution of human language and what distinguishes us from all other animals.Berwick and Chomsky discuss the biolinguistic perspective on language, which views language as a particular object of the biological world; the computational efficiency of language as a system of thought and understanding; the tension between Darwin's idea of gradual change and our contemporary understanding about evolutionary change and language; and evidence from nonhuman animals, in particular vocal learning in songbirds.

The Himalaya and surrounding regions are amongst the world's most linguistically diverse places. Of an estimated 600 languages spoken here at Asia's heart, few are researched in depth and many virtually undocumented. Historical developments and relationships between the region's languages also remain poorly understood. This book brings together new work on under-researched Himalayan languages with investigations into the complexities of the area's linguistic history, offering original data and perspectives on the synchrony and diachrony of the Greater Himalayan Region.The volume arises from papers given and topics discussed at the 16th Himalayan Languages Symposium in London in 2010. Most papers focus on Tibeto-Burman languages. These include topics relating to individual - mostly small and endangered - languages, such as Tilung, Shumcho, Rengmitca, Yongning Na and Tshangla; comparative research on the Tibetic, East Bodish and Tamangic language groups; and several papers whose scope covers the whole language family. The remaining paper deals with the origins of Burushaski, whose genetic affiliation remains uncertain.This book will be of special interest to scholars of Tibeto-Burman, and historical as well as general linguists.

The present volume is a broad overview of methods and methodologies in linguistics, illustrated with examples from concrete research. It collects insights gained from a broad range of linguistic sub-disciplines, ranging from core disciplines to topics in cross-linguistic and language-internal diversity or to contributions towards language, space and society. Given its critical and innovative nature, the volume is a valuable source for students and researchers of a broad range of linguistic interests.