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On Neanderthal speech and human evolution

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Commentary onMerlinDonald (1993) Précis of Origins of the modern mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition. BBS 16: 737–791

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Philip Lieberman
Philip Lieberman
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912-1978. lieberman@cogvax.cog.brown.edu
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Abstract

Loring Brace's assertion that “Neanderthals were just as capable of articulate speech as we are” reflects ignorance of speech anatomy and physiology. Metrical analyses of hyoid bone morphology cannot predict supralaryngeal vocal tract (SVT) shape. Houghton's (1993) “modern” Neanderthal SVT reconstruction yields an impossible creature who had a larynx positioned in his chest. The reconstructed modem SVTs of early fossil Homo sapiens indicate brains that can regulate speech, consistent with Merlin Donalds timetable for the evolution of language.

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Type
Continuing Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 156 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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