Semiogenesis is the genesis or evolution of signs and their use as part of the development of certain animal waters; in a narrower sense – the evolution of non-linguistic signs in Homo sapiens.
In this narrower understanding, semiogenesis is seen as a process that began much earlier than glottogenesis (the evolution of phonemic language). Glottogenesis is thought to have begun fifty thousand years ago, while semiogenesis is at least as old as the human race itself.