https://www.comparativelinguistics.uzh.ch/en/CCCG.html

University of Zurich
Switzerland
CH

Simon and his group are interested in the evolutionary origins of human language. By taking a broadly comparative approach, investigating the vocal communication and cognition skills of a disparate array of primate and non-primate animals (vervet monkeys, chimpanzees, wolves, pied babblers, Chestnut-crowned babblers, magpies), they aim to unpack the similarities and differences between animal and human communication. This approach will help elucidate the phylogenetic age of the human language faculty and the selective conditions that promoted its emergence.