Connectivity and the search for specializations in the language-capable brain

•Anatomical specializations come in many forms, making direct comparisons complicated.•A common space approach differentiates shared and unique aspects of brain organization.•This demonstrates novel projections into temporal cortex for the arcuate fascicle.•This suggests ways to investigate proposed specializations of laryngeal motor cortex. The search for the anatomical basis of language has traditionally been a search for specializations. More recently such research has focused both on aspects of brain organization that are unique to humans and aspects shared with other primates. This work has mostly concentrated on the architecture of connections between brain areas. However, as specializations can take many guises, comparison of anatomical organization across species is often complicated. We demonstrate how viewing different types of specializations within a common framework allows one to better appreciate both shared and unique aspects of brain organization. We illustrate this point by discussing recent insights into the anatomy of the dorsal language pathway to the frontal cortex and areas for laryngeal control in the motor cortex.