Why, of all living creatures on Earth, only humans speak? How and when did the language appear? Why do kids easily learn their native language? Where is the tongue located in the brain? Humanity has been searching for answers to these questions since ancient times. The human ability to speak remained a closely guarded mystery until the second half of the 19th century, when neurologists Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke first discovered speech centers in the brain. Today, with the help of modern technology, scientists can see how the living brain works. The collaboration of neuroscientists, psychologists and linguists has made it possible to find out, down to milliseconds, where and what happens in the brain when a person speaks. And also understand why our closest relatives - chimpanzees - did not learn to speak. The book is based on foreign scientific research in recent years, interviews and personal conversations between the author and scientists as part of the work on the popular science project “Language in the Brain” of European Journalism-Fellowships with the financial support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. ISBN 978-5-600-02811-1