Neanderthals, a species of hominid from the Stone Age that became extinct about 40,000 years ago, spoke in a very similar way to humans , concludes a new study carried out by an international team of scientists and collected by the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
A vocal communication system similar to human speech
Studying the evolution of language is quite complicated in this case, since the soft tissue that makes up the brains and vocal tracts is not preserved in the fossil record.
” For decades, one of the central questions in human evolutionary studies has been whether the human form of communication, spoken language, was also present in any other species of human ancestor , especially Neanderthals”, clarifies Juan Luis Arsuaga, professor of paleontology. at the Complutense University of Madrid and co-director of excavations and research in the archaeological sites of Atapuerca.
Fortunately, the bones that make up the auditory system have been preserved.
Virtual reconstructions of Neanderthal ears showed that our extinct cousins had the same physical ability to hear as modern humans and therefore could also make the same sounds as us ; although this does not mean that they spoke a language. This aspect, we do not know.
“We do not know if they had a language, but at least they had all the anatomical parts necessary to have the type of speech that we have,” says Mercedes Conde-Valverde from the University of Alcalá in Spain and co-author of the work. “It’s not that they had the same language, neither English, nor Spanish, nothing like this. But if we could listen to them, we would recognize that they are human. “
The researchers used medical imaging software to create virtual 3D reconstructions of the Neanderthal middle and outer ear cavities, based on CT scans of their skulls. Thanks to these models, they were able to reverse engineer the range of sounds that Neanderthals were capable of hearing and expressing, a technique previously used to study speech and hearing in other chimpanzees and ancient humans. The occupied bandwidth is related to the communication system, so that a wider bandwidth allows a greater number of distinguishable acoustic signals to be used in the oral communication of a species.
The results estimated hearing abilities up to 5 kHz , which encompasses most of the frequency range of modern human speech sounds. Compared to the Atapuerca fossils, Neanderthals showed slightly better hearing between 4-5 kHz, more closely resembling modern humans. Interestingly, the occupied bandwidth of Neanderthals was extended to frequencies above 3 kilohertz which are mainly involved in the production of consonants.
“This gives us the key,” continues Conde-Valverde. “The presence of similar auditory capabilities, particularly bandwidth, shows that Neanderthals possessed a communication system that was as complex and efficient as modern human speech.”
Does this mean that they had the cognitive ability to speak ? No, according to scientists, we have no evidence that Sima hominins exhibited the complex symbolic behavior, such as funerals and art, that we have found associated with Neanderthals.
“Our results, along with recent discoveries indicating symbolic behaviors in Neanderthals, reinforce the idea that they possessed a type of human language, one that was very different in its complexity and efficiency from any other oral communication system used by non-human organisms. on the planet “, they conclude.
Referencia: Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had similar auditory and speech capacities, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01391-6 , dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01391-6
