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Timeline: Evolution of Human Language Research

For centuries, scholars and thinkers have tried to unravel the nature of human language. Our understanding of language has grown immensely, especially in the past 50 years. But there are still huge gaps in our knowledge. Here, a timeline of how experts from fields as diverse as anthropology, neuroscience, genetics, psychology, evolutionary biology, linguistics and artificial intelligence have shaped our thinking about language.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rhitu Chatterjee is a health correspondent with NPR, with a focus on mental health. In addition to writing about the latest developments in psychology and psychiatry, she reports on the prevalence of different mental illnesses and new developments in treatments.