Scientific American
Could they speak, too? Did they proposition modern humans in an interspecies creole language?
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Whether or not Neandertals could speak has been studied for more than five decades and the question is still being researched because no definitive answer has been given. It is clear that our human relatives were capable of enormously complex cultural achievements. So how was all of that possible without the powerful communication capabilities afforded by speech?
To be sure, Neandertals were equipped with a well-known language gene. But some studies cast doubt on whether Neandertals’ anatomy was suitable for producing the sounds of speech: their larynx was shaped differently than that of modern humans. Still, it was considered likely that our cousin species could produce a wide variety of sounds. Whether those sounds rose to the level of actual speech remains controversial.
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A new study has suggested that Neanderthals were able to hear sounds and even produce speech like today’s humans. Experts came to this conclusion by creating a digital reconstruction of the skull bones and focused on their ear cavities. It was long thought that Neanderthals weren’t very smart, but recent studies have confirmed that they. Read more »
Neanderthals could perceive and produce human speech, a new study suggests. The vocal communication system of the species that cohabited – and possibly bred with – ancient humans had the same capacity for human speech, according to an analysis of their vocal communication system.
Neanderthals were capable of human speech
Detailed and long-running research shows that our closest ancestor talked and heard.
3D model and virtual reconstruction of the ear in a modern human (left) and the Amud 1 Neandertal (right). Credit: Mercedes Conde-Valverde.
The closest ancestor to modern humans – Neanderthals – were capable of understanding and producing human speech, according to a new study published by an international team in the journal
Nature Ecology and Evolution.
“This is one of the most important studies I have been involved in during my career,” says anthropologist Rolf Quam, of Binghamton University, US. “The results are solid and clearly show the Neanderthals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech.