International study reveals incredible discovery about Neanderthal language

the question of what makes the modern man unique it has long been a driving force for researchers. Comparisons to our closest relatives, the Neanderthals, have served as a reflection of our humanity since their discovery in 1856.

Studies have shown that Homo neanderthalensis looked a lot like us : They were intelligent, creative and compassionate, they moved in small groups but were extremely cooperative, especially when hunting. They also buried their dead, decorated themselves and exploited the resources of the sea.

Due to its various similarities with modern humans, there has been considerable debate over whether or not Neanderthals had the modern speaking ability. However, proving the existence of language in an extinct species is a puzzle.

Still, archaeologists look for evidence for or against by analyzing their skeletal remains, life forms, and the artifacts they left behind. Recently, the author of a study not yet published and awaiting peer review, attempted to analyze Neanderthal lingo through a multidisciplinary analysis of the speech abilities of ancient humans which combines anatomical, socio-cultural, cognitive, environmental and genetic evidence.

Antonio Benítez-Burraco, a linguist at the University of Seville, assures that the Neanderthals were able to produce most of the same sounds as us due to the vocal apparatus they had, in addition, their hearing was also similar to the OUR.

“It is almost certain that the Neanderthals spoke languages ​​quite similar to ours, but apparently less complex structurally and less flexible functionally,” writes the author.

One way to find out how Neanderthals were able to speak is to reconstruct their vocal tracts and then compare them to those of modern apes and modern humans. In his study, Benítez-Burraco explains that The vocal pathways of Neanderthals were very similar to ours, so they were able to produce almost the same sounds as us.

Also, they had similar hearing , especially bandwidth, suggesting that they had a communication system as complex and efficient as the modern system. However, this does not necessarily mean that they had the mental faculties to speak the same language as ancient humans. The Neanderthal brain was less “bulky” than ours, due to the shape of its cranial cavity.

He The modern human brain has two more developed areas compared to that of Neanderthals. This means that the thalamus, a region heavily involved in language processing, may have been less prominent.

These domains are linked to visuospatial skills which allow, among other things, visual imagination, management of space and time, creation of tools or social relations. Which has led to speculation that Neanderthals were less capable of “cross-modal thinking” and therefore they lacked the ability to create complex language structures by combining different concepts.

Moreover, the simplicity of their tools suggests that they did not share the ability for “hierarchical thinking”, so they may have been unable to construct sentences or complicated sentences. And the lack of cultural adaptation over time may reflect an inability to innovate due to “less powerful working memory resources.”

Regarding the sound of the Neanderthal language, Benítez-Burraco says it was “rich in consonantism” due to the cold, dry, and open environments in which they lived. This hypothesis is based on previous studies between environment and language, which say that cold temperatures “disadvantage the use of pitch to convey linguistic information”, while dryness “disadvantages vowel sounds”.

All of these restrictions on the species may have limited its language ability, according to the study’s author. At the very least, one could assume that Neanderthal languages ​​could have featured less complex syntax, fewer functional categories (such as determiners or conjunctions), and less distinctive sounds. , writing. “Apparently, too, these languages ​​might have been less able to convey sophisticated propositional meanings,” he adds.

Still, “this is a very rough and highly speculative description” of how Neanderthals communicated. As the author comments, it is likely that it will never be known with certainty unless a time machine is invented.