EN
Following the review of literature, the author tries to answer the question about the beginning of language and speech among the ancestors of humans. She presents stages of the brain and peripheral vocal apparatus development from Austarlopithecus, a manually skillful Homo habilis and Homo erectus with a marked cerebral lateralization and the Neanderthal, who had the makings of self-consciousness and symbols. The differences between language and proto-language are also discussed.