The age-old debate between the proponents of the gesture-first and speech-first positions has returned to occupy a central place in current language evolution theorizing. The gestural scenarios, suffering from the problem known as “modality transition” (why a gestural system would have changed into a predominantly spoken system), frequently appeal to the gestures of the orofacial area as a platform for this putative transition. Here, we review currently available evidence on the significance of the orofacial area in language evolution. While our review offers some support for orofacial movements as an evolutionary “bridge” between manual gesture and speech, we see the evidence as far more consistent with a multimodal approach. We also suggest that, more generally, the “gestural versus spoken” formulation is limiting and would be better expressed in terms of the relative input and interplay of the visual and vocal-auditory sensory modalities.

中文翻译：

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口面部的可见运动

手势优先和语音优先的支持者之间由来已久的争论又回到了当前语言进化理论的中心位置。手势场景遭受称为“模态转换”的问题（为什么手势系统会变成主要的口语系统），经常将口面部的手势作为这种假定转换的平台。在这里，我们回顾了目前关于口面部在语言进化中的重要性的现有证据。虽然我们的评论为口面部运动作为手动手势和语音之间的进化“桥梁”提供了一些支持，但我们认为证据与多模式方法更加一致。我们还建议，更一般地说，