During the last few decades we have discovered enormous amounts about our genomes‎,‎ their evolution and‎,‎ importantly for linguists and language scientists‎,‎ the genetic foundations of language and speech‎.‎ Accessible and readable‎,‎ this introduction is designed specifically for students and researchers working in language and linguistics‎.‎ It carefully focuses on the most relevant concepts‎,‎ methods and findings in the genetics of language and speech‎,‎ and covers a wide range of topics such as heritability‎,‎ the molecular mechanisms through which genes influence our language‎,‎ and the evolutionary forces affecting them‎.‎ Filling a large gap in the literature‎,‎ this essential guide explores relevant examples including hearing loss‎,‎ stuttering‎,‎ dyslexia‎,‎ brain growth and development‎,‎ as well as the normal range of variation‎.‎ It also contains a helpful glossary of terms‎,‎ and a wide range of references so the reader can pursue topics of interest in more depth‎.‎