Evolution of Language in Our Human Ancestors | Early European History And Religion

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HOMO ERECTUS LANGUAGE?

Some scientists have theorized that Homo erectus must have possessed some form of rudimentary language because it needed to communicate to organize hunts and pass on information about tool making. The parts of the Homo erectus brain associated with reasoning, symbolism and imagination though were relatively undeveloped. The frontal lobe, where complex thinking takes place in modern humans, was relatively small. The small hole in its vertebrae probably meant that not enough information was transferred from the brain to the lungs, neck and mouth to make speech possible. Ann MacLarson, an anthropologist at Roehampton Institute in London, told National Geographic: "With simple grunts you can communicate a lot. But he couldn't have produced anything like modern speech."

At the 350,000-year-old site in Bilzingsleben — which could have been occupied by homo erectus, homo heidelbergensis or Neanderthals — archaeologists found pieces of bone and smooth stones arranged in a 27-foot-wide circle. "They intentionally paved this area for cultural activities," Dietrich Mania off the University of Jena, told National Geographic. "We found here a large anvil of quartzite set between the horns of a huge bison. Near it were fractured human skulls."

Describing an elephant tibia engraved with a series a regular lines found at Bilzingsleben, Mania said, "Seven lines go in one direction, 21 go in the other. We have found other pieces of bone with cut lines that are also too regular to be accidental. They are graphic symbols. To us they are evidence of abstract thinking and human language." The tibia was dated at around 400,000 years ago. Scientists debate whether 400,000-year-old hominids were capable of symbolic thinking, often regarded as hallmark of language. If Mania's conjectures are correct, then ancient hominids could have been much more advanced than previously thought.

Neanderthal Speech?

Research suggests that Neanderthals had the ability to perceive and produce speech. Yahoo News reported: “The research, based on fossil remains, also offered hints on what Neanderthal speech sounded like, with an increased use of consonants compared to the languages we speak today.High-resolution CT (computerised tomography) scans of ear structures from Neanderthal fossils were compared to humans and earlier fossils of Neanderthal ancestors. Data from the 3D model was used to calculate the hearing range of Neanderthals compared to humans and their own ancestors — and found that Neanderthals had better hearing at the 4-5kHz range, like modern humans. The research was published in Nature. [Source: Rob Waugh, Yahoo News, March 3, 2021]

Based on their bones, we know that Neanderthals were capable of at least making complex sounds. It's hard to prove that Neanderthals had language because they didn't leave us any writings (although neither did anatomically modern humans from the same period). But some researchers have argued that they probably did have sophisticated ways of communicating.

Scientists believe that Neanderthals may have had a spoken language based on the fact that they had hyoid bones — which hold up the voice box in modern humans — virtually identical to those in modern humans and a hypoglossal canal — a bony canal in the occipital bone of the skull theorized role to have a role in speech;. Christopher Stringer of the Natural History Museum of London told National Geographic, "They may not have had language as complex as ours. We have symbolism. They may not have all had all that, but at least they could talk to each other." Some scientists dismiss the presence of the hypoglossal canal as evidence of speech, pointing out that monkeys and apes have the same size canal. Neanderthals posses the same version of the gene FOXP2, which has been linked it speech and language, as humans.

Early Modern Human Language

It is not known when language first emerged. According to some theories it emerged around 50,000 years and developed hand in hand with the development of behavioral modern human beings. Some believe this happened when some genetic change occurred allowing one group to develop speech and this group advanced, dominated other groups and multiplied.

Gregory D.S. Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, told the Washington Post, “In the pre-agricultural state, the norm was to have lots and lots of little languages. As humans developed with agriculture, larger population groups were able to aggregate together, and you get large languages developing."

Scientists believe that Neanderthals may have had a spoken language based on the fact that they had hyoid bones---which hold up the voice box in modern humans---virtually identical to those in modern humans and a hypoglossal canal---a bony canal in the occipital bone of the skull theorized role to have a role in speech;. Christopher Stringer of the Natural History Museum of London told National Geographic, "They may not have had language as complex as ours. We have symbolism. They may not have all had all that, but at least they could talk to each other." Some scientists dismiss the presence of the hypoglossal canal as evidence of speech, pointing out that monkeys and apes have the same size canal. Neanderthals posses the same version of the gene FOXP2, which has been linked it speech and language, as humans.

The development of language appears to have a genetic component. A strong can be made that gene called FOXP2 is involved human language. When a certain mutation occurs to the gene humans lose their ability to make sense of language and produce coherent speech. The gene occurs across the animal kingdom, When FOXP2 is disrupted in birds, their songs are messed upped. With bats, it affects echolocation. How the gene affects language is not known. The amino acid sequence between humans and chimpanzees is the same, except in two of the 715 sequences, with a mutation possibly the key behind why humans have spoken language and chimps don’t.

When and Where Did Human Speech Evolve?

George Poulos, author “Origins of Human Speech and Language” told The Conversation: Research indicates that the first speech sounds were uttered about 70,000 years ago, and not hundreds of thousands or millions of years ago, as is sometimes claimed in the literature.

While my research has been primarily based on phonetic (speech sounds) and linguistic (language) analyses, it has also taken into account other disciplines, like palaeoanthropology (the study of human evolution), archaeology (analysing fossils and other remains), anatomy (the body) and genetics (the study of genes). [Source: George Poulos, Professor Emeritus, University of South Africa, The Conversation, December 27, 2022]

“The transformation of Homo sapiens (modern humans) from a “non-speaking” to a “speaking” species happened at about the same time as our hunter-gatherer ancestors migrated out of Africa. When those early adventurers migrated beyond the African continent, they took with them the greatest gift ever acquired by our species — the ability to produce speech sounds, enabled by the creation of a “speech” gene. It was that ability, more than anything else, that catapulted them into a world in which they would dominate all other species.

The utterance of the very first speech sounds about 70,000 years ago was the beginning of a journey that was to lead to the evolution of human language. Language has provided the medium of communication that has played a pivotal role in the momentous developments that have taken place from the earliest known “written” records that we have access to (some 5,500 years ago), to the highly sophisticated technological advances that we are witnessing today.

Before 70,000 years ago, the only sounds humans could produce were the so-called “vocalisations” or vocal calls. Those were imitations or mimics of various actions or sounds that humans were exposed to in their environment. They may have also been involuntary sounds which expressed various emotions or the involuntary sounds made when yawning, sneezing etcetera. These must not be confused with the very intricate mechanisms that are involved in the production of the speech sounds which form the foundations of what we recognise today as human language.

What Were the First Speech Sounds Uttered?

George Poulos said: The very first speech sounds ever produced were not just random involuntary sounds. Underlying these speech sounds was a fledgling network that connected certain areas of the brain to different parts of the vocal tract. Various anatomical and environmental factors contributed to Homo sapiens’ ability to produce speech sounds for the first time ever. [Source: George Poulos, Professor Emeritus, University of South Africa, The Conversation, December 27, 2022; Poulos wrote “Origins of Human Speech and Language”]

Another interesting factor was an apparent change in the diet of our early ancestors and the possible effect it might have had on the human brain. The change to what was essentially a marine diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids occurred when those early humans migrated from the interior to the coastlines of the continent.

The vocal tract developed gradually over a long period, and the different stages in its development determined the types of sounds that could be produced. At the time of the “out of Africa” migration, the only part of the vocal tract that was physiologically developed to produce speech sounds was the oral cavity (mouth area). The only speech sound that could be produced entirely in the mouth at the time was the so-called “click” sound. The airstream could be controlled within the mouth. Clicks are the only known speech sounds that behave in this manner. They still occur today in a few African languages — predominantly in the Khoisan languages spoken in parts of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Clicks occur in less than 1 percent of the languages of the world. They also occur in a few isolated instances in East Africa and in certain languages of South Africa that adopted the clicks when they came into contact with the Khoisan. Clicks have also been noted in one instance outside the African continent, in an extinct ceremonial language register known as Damin in Australia.

An example of a click speech sound is the so-called “kiss” (or bilabial) click where the lips are brought together, and the back part of the tongue is raised against the back of the mouth. The lips are then sucked slightly inwards, and when released a click sound is produced. My research suggests that the “kiss” click was probably the first speech sound ever produced by Homo sapiens. As time moved on, the various parts of the tongue became more and more manoeuvrable, making it possible for other click sounds to be produced in the mouth as well.

When Did Proper Speech and Grammar Evolve?

George Poulos said: This study demonstrates that the production of all the other human speech sounds (the other consonants, as well as all the vowels) began to take place from approximately 50,000 years ago. This was dependent on the gradual development of a well-proportioned vocal tract which included the mouth, the area behind the mouth (the pharynx), the nasal passages, and the all-important larynx with its vocal cords. Three airstream mechanisms evolved for the production of all speech sounds, and they evolved gradually in successive stages. [Source: George Poulos, Professor Emeritus, University of South Africa, The Conversation, December 27, 2022; Poulos wrote “Origins of Human Speech and Language”]

As the different speech sounds evolved, they combined in various ways to form syllables and words. And these in turn combined with each other in different ways to generate the structural types of grammatical sentences that characterise modern languages. The initial ability to produce speech sounds was the spark that led to the gradual evolution of language. Grammatical language did not evolve overnight. There was no “single silver bullet” that generated language.

The indication is that human language was a fairly late acquisition of Homo sapiens. It is argued in this study that language, as we know it today, probably began to emerge about 20,000 years ago. We observed earlier that the first speech sounds were uttered by the ancestors of the speakers of present-day Khoisan languages. In the light of this observation, it would be reasonable to assume that they had a head start in being the first to speak a grammatical language as well.

To date there is no substantial phonetic or linguistic evidence to indicate that other species such as the Neanderthals could have ever spoken a grammatical language. They did not have the required vocal tract dimensions for speech sound production, let alone the morphological and syntactic structures that were required for grammatical language.

Did Advanced Toolmaking Kickstart Language?

Some scientists theorize that the brain power that developed hand-in-hand with advanced hand-toolmaking potentially paved the way for language development. Ian Sample wrote in The Guardian: “The design of stone tools changed dramatically in human pre-history, beginning more than two million years ago with sharp but primitive stone flakes, and culminating in exquisite, finely honed hand axes 500,000 years ago. The development of sophisticated stone tools, including sturdy cutting and sawing edges, is considered a key moment in human evolution, as it set the stage for better nutrition and advanced social behaviours, such as the division of labour and group hunting. "There has been a long discussion in the archaeology community about why it took so long to make more complex stone tools. Did we simply lack the manual dexterity, or were we just not smart enough to think about better techniques?" said Aldo Faisal, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London. [Source: Ian Sample, The Guardian, November 3, 2010 |=|]

“Faisal's team investigated the complexity of hand movements used by an experienced craftsman while he made replicas of simple and then more complex stone tools. Bruce Bradley, an archaeologist at Exeter University, wore a glove fitted with electronic sensors while he chipped away at stones to make a razor-sharp flake and then a more sophisticated hand axe. The results showed that the movements needed to make a hand axe were no more difficult than those used to make a primitive stone flake, suggesting early humans were limited by brain power rather than manual dexterity. |=|

“Early humans were adept at making stone flakes, but these were so thin they were liable to break while being used. The movements needed to make advanced tools were no more difficult, but they had to be executed more intelligently, to produce a tool that had a fat, sturdy body with a sharp cutting edge. |=|

“The oldest and simplest stone tools, known as Oldowan flakes, were uncovered alongside the fossilised remains of Homo habilis, a forerunner of modern humans, in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Stone hand axes have been uncovered next to bones of Homo erectus, the ancient human species that led the migration out of Africa. Hand axes are usually worked symmetrically on both sides into a teardrop shape. |=|

“Brain scans of modern stone-tool makers show that key areas in the brain's right hemisphere become more active when they switch from making stone flakes to more advanced tools. Intriguingly, some of these brain regions are involved in language processing. "The advance from crude stone tools to elegant handheld axes was a massive technological leap for our early human ancestors. Handheld axes were a more useful tool for defence, hunting and routine work," said Faisal, whose study appears in the journal PLoS ONE. "Our study reinforces the idea that toolmaking and language evolved together as both required more complex thought, making the end of the lower paleolithic a pivotal time in our history. After this period, early humans left Africa and began to colonise other parts of the world." |=|

Did a Love of Animals Lead to the Development of Language?

Anthropologist Pat Shipman theorizes that early hominins began to interact with animals they developed empathy and the ability to communicate. Robin McKie wrote in The Guardian: “Interacting with animals on an intimate basis led humans to develop sophisticated tools and evolve enhanced communication skills, including language itself, Shipman of Pennsylvania State University told the Observer. Animals also taught us that others – even other species – have emotions, needs and thoughts, while they also helped us to evolve the vital skills of empathy, understanding and compromise. "The longest and enduring trend in human evolution has been a gradual intensification of our involvement with animals." [Source: Robin McKie, The Guardian, October 2, 2011 |=|]

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“Shipman traces humanity's animal connection to the period 2.5 million years ago when our hominin ancestors first made tools. These crafted pieces of stone still litter sites in eastern Africa, including the Olduvai Gorge in Kenya, and bear testimony to the mental transformation in our ancestors' brains. "These apemen didn't just pick up stones and use them to hammer or pound prey or plants," said Shipman. "They shaped those rocks for specific purposes. They had a mental image of the kind of tools they needed and created them by chipping away at a large piece of stone until they got what they wanted." |=|

“And what they wanted were tools for cutting up carcasses. In other words, the sharp stone flakes spread over Olduvai were not used primarily as weapons to kill animals or to hack down plants, but to process dead animals that had already been brought down by other carnivores. Apemen had begun to scavenge for meat from carcasses of prey killed by leopards, cheetahs and other carnivores. Armed with sharp blades, they could cut off chunks of antelope or deer and escape quickly before being eaten themselves by an enraged lion, they discovered. |=|

“And that was the crucial point that began our special relationship with the animal kingdom, said Shipman, whose book, The Animal Connection, is published in 2011. "Until that point, we had been a prey species. Carnivores ate us. Then we began scavenging before going on to hunt on our own behalf. Meat provided our ancestors with a wonderful, rich source of sustenance. However, scavenging for it left us in a very vulnerable position. We were still just as likely to be consumed when confronted by a carnivore as we were to kill in our own right. To survive, we had to learn about the behaviour of a vast number of different species – the ones we wanted to kill and the ones we wanted to avoid. |=|

Switch to Soft Food Gave Us an Overbite — and the Ability to Pronounce ‘F’s and ‘V’s

When humans switched to softer foods after the spread of agriculture, they put less wear and tear on their teeth. Ann Gibbons wrote in Science: That changed the growth of their jaws, giving adults the overbites normal in children. Within a few thousand years, those slight overbites made it easy for people in farming cultures to fire off sounds like “f” and “v,” opening a world of new words. [Source: Ann Gibbons, Science, March 14, 2019]

The newly favored consonants, known as labiodentals, helped spur the diversification of languages in Europe and Asia at least 4000 years ago; they led to such changes as the replacement of the Proto-Indo-European patēr to Old English faeder about 1500 years ago, according to linguist and senior author Balthasar Bickel at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. The paper shows “that a cultural shift can change our biology in such a way that it affects our language,” says evolutionary morphologist Noreen Von Cramon-Taubadel of the University at Buffalo.

Postdocs Damián Blasi and Steven Moran in Bickel’s lab set out to test an idea proposed by the late American linguist Charles Hockett. He noted in 1985 that the languages of hunter-gatherers lacked labiodentals, and conjectured that their diet was partly responsible: Chewing gritty, fibrous foods puts force on the growing jaw bone and wears down molars. In response, the lower jaw grows larger, and the molars erupt farther and drift forward on the protruding lower jaw, so that the upper and lower teeth align. That edge-to-edge bite makes it harder to push the upper jaw forward to touch the lower lip, which is required to pronounce labiodentals. But other linguists rejected the idea, and Blasi says he, Moran, and their colleagues “expected to prove Hockett wrong.”

First, the six researchers used computer modeling to show that with an overbite, producing labiodentals takes 29 percent less effort than with an edge-to-edge bite. Then, they scrutinized the world’s languages and found that hunter-gatherer languages have only about one-fourth as many labiodentals as languages from farming societies. Finally, they looked at the relationships among languages, and found that labiodentals can spread quickly, so that the sounds could go from being rare to common in the 8000 years since the widespread adoption of agriculture and new food processing methods such as grinding grain into flour.

Bickel suggests that as more adults developed overbites, they accidentally began to use “f” and “v” more. In ancient India and Rome, labiodentals may have been a mark of status, signaling a softer diet and wealth, he says. Those consonants also spread through other language groups; today, they appear in 76 percent of Indo-European languages.

Linguist Nicholas Evans of Australian National University in Canberra finds the study’s “multimethod approach to the problem” convincing. Ian Maddieson, an emeritus linguist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, isn’t sure researchers tallied the labiodentals correctly but agrees that the study shows external factors like diet can alter the sounds of speech.

The findings also suggest our facility with f-words comes at a cost. As we lost our ancestral edge-to-edge bite, “we got new sounds but maybe it wasn’t so great for us,” Moran says. “Our lower jaws are shorter, we have impacted wisdom teeth, more crowding — and cavities.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Live Science, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Ancient Foods ancientfoods.wordpress.com ; Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024