The origin and evolution of language was the result of a transfer of motor patterning from that controlling bodily movement generally to the articulatory organs. There are basic (innate) elementary neural motor programs from which all bodily movements are constructed which specifically control all the precise ballistic and targeted movements of the hand and arm. Movements of the hand and arm can be seen to be segmented into elementary movements (when for example there is damage to the cerebellum). When redirected to the articulatory organs they produce an equivalent set of elementary speech sounds (elementary articulatory programs). Every articulatory gesture can be redirected to produce an equivalent gesture of the hand and arm; every gesture of the hand and arm can be redirected to produce an equivalent articulatory gesture. Gestures of the hand and arm in a number of different ways represent, or more precisely, are structured by the contours of perceived objects or of larger bodily actions. Specific articulatory gestures generate specific phonetic-phonological patternings of utterances.