[language] Neandertals

[H.M. Hubey]

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/010710_neanderthal.shtml



      Neanderthal's Gift Of Speech

      Neanderthals were once portrayed by scientists as primitive
cavemen. These
      ancient humans, who inhabited Europe 30,000 years ago, were
believed to
      grunt and were considered incapable of creating specialised tools.

      In the last three decades, the image of the Neanderthal has
undergone a large
      revision with scientists challenging each other's research on this
race's ability
      to speak.

      But now, a group of scientists are no longer asking could they
speak?, but
      rather, how clear was their speech? Science In Action
investigates.

To listen to the programme, please click here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/ram/neanderthal.ram



      Origin Of Speech

      There are several theories on when people began to communicate
through
      speech. Some scientists believe the ability to speak arose with
the creativity
      and self-awareness needed to create stone technology over two
million years
      ago. In order to convey tool-making technology, a form of spoken
language
      was needed.

      Others believe speech began appearing 40,000 years ago. It is
feasible that
      Homo neanderthalensis, or Neanderthal, discussed the meaning of
cave art and
      other artifacts, such as flutes, through words with their kin.

      If this ancient race had vocal capabilities, it would mean that
speech evolved
      earlier than evidence suggests. The stocky and muscular
Neanderthals, the
      survivors of many Ice Ages, had inhabited Europe for 200,000
years.

      Material Evidence

      While stone technology and cave art constitute material evidence,
brain
      structure and words clearly do not and cannot be analysed in the
same way, so
      how do researchers study ancient speech capabilities?

      The answer lies in recreating the computer models of the human
vocal tract,
      which includes the larynx or Adam's apple, the windpipe and the
area inside
      the mouth, neither of which fossilise.

      Vocal Tract Anatomies

      Franklin Yates, at George Washington University, US, simply
assumes that
      Neanderthals were able to speak and focuses his study on
establishing the
      clarity of their speech.

      Because speech is related to vocal tract anatomy, he has created
several models
      of these, based on different species of apes, on his computer.

      'I estimated what a Neanderthal's vocal tract would look like if
it had a
      human-like vocal tract as well as a chimp-like vocal tract. You
can input
      the basic shapes into a computer programme, which returns the
acoustical
      properties for the vowel “e”.'



      This vowel is then subjected to tests to establish how clear it
sounds.

      The Vowel Test

      Analysing the sound of vowels is important because they are
present in
      modern human speech. Some studies, such as one headed by linguist
Philip
      Lieberman, in 1992, concluded Neanderthals were unable to
pronounce the
      vowels – “a”, “i”, and “u”, as well as the consonants “k” and “g”.
He
      claimed Neanderthals had a tongue and larynx badly placed for
producing the
      range of sounds necessary for modern language.

      Dr Erik Trinkaus, at Washington University, refuted this by
contending a
      species may not have needed the modern range of vowels to produce
speech.

      In his study, Yates has been testing the “e” vowel on models of
chimpanzees,
      humans and Neanderthals. The results suggest Neanderthals would
have had
      deeper voices than humans.

      'Our results depend on how we model the “e” vocal tract for the
Neanderthal,
      because his tract, if it's modelled like a human, is very long,
25% longer than
      our own, on average.'

      'Their voices would have been very deep compared to our own. They
      would have had an entirely different octave range. So if Barry
White had
      sung in a choir of Neanderthals, he would have been the tenor.'



      If the Neanderthal's vocal tract had been similar to that of
chimpanzees, the
      windpipe would have been shorter. Speech would have been slushy
and
      difficult to understand. Modelled as humans, their voices would
have been
      deep, like a bass.

      The Decline of A Species

      Settling the question of the Neanderthal's vocal capability, and
its efficacy, is
      important because it would provide at least one reason for
explaining why
      modern humans, or Homo sapiens, came to dominate earth and the
      Neanderthal population began to decline and eventually became
extinct.

      A communication skill like speech, and the organisational
abilities and
      diversity it would have spawned, could have given modern humans an

      advantage over their speech-deficient rivals - the Neanderthals
who inhabited
      the same area of Europe.

      A completely different theory proposes that when modern humans
dispersed
      into Europe, in some areas they replaced the resident Neanderthals
and in
      others interbred with them.

      In Portugal, the bones of a 24,500-year-old boy show features that
belong to
      both races.


      After theorising on how these ancient ancestors pronounced their
words, an
      important question remains a mystery: What did our ancient
ancestors
      actually say?

--
M. Hubey

hubeyh at mail.montclair.edu
/\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey



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