Evolution of Language: Neanderthal Speech

Evolution of Language:Neanderthal Speech

One clue to the evolution of speech is the descent of the larynx which allows for the articulatory control of air.

Arch of Cranial Base: Indicates descended larynx

• Earliest hominins (Australopiths) had cranial base similar to apes

• Cranial base approximates human angle in Kabwe and Steinheim skulls (around 300,000 ybp)

• Neanderthal cranium actually flatter than some older samples.

Hominin Evolutionary Chronology

• 5-7 mybp: split between chimp and hominin lines• 5-4 mybp: emergence of earliest hominins –

australopiths• 2.5-2 mybp: emergence of genus Homo (first major brain

size expansion• 1.8 mybp: emergence of Homo erectus/ergaster (first

evidence of human-like traits)• .5 mypb: emergence of Homo heidelbergensis (first of

the archaic Homo sapiens; second major expansion in brain size

• 200,000 ybp: emergence of Homo sapiens, Neanderthals

• 35,000 ypb Upper Paleolithic revolution

Animal Language: Vervet Alarm Calls

• Different alarm calls appear to be referential

Ape Language Studies

• Washoe Koko Nim Chimpsky• Fouts/Gardners Francine Patterson Herb Terrace

Kanzi: The talking BonoboSue Savage-Rumbaugh

Lexigram symbol languageSimple syntaxSpontaneous acquisitionReferential/symbolic

understanding90% utterances:

requests/commands

Derek Bickerton: Catastrophic Evolution

Two steps: protolanguage – associated with increasing brain size

Full language – associated with cultural revolution in UP