One question has baffled paleoanthropologists for decades. Could Neanderthals produce and understand the equivalent of human speech? Were Neanderthals verbally and linguistically capable, as were their cousins Homo sapiens?
After many years of research, it seems that this riddle may have already been solved. According to a team of multidisciplinary researchers affiliated with the University of Alcalá and the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and Binghamton University in New York, Neanderthal speech abilities were considerable and possessed all the physical characteristics necessary to speak and understand speak.
Neanderthals had ears to speak
In the last edition of Ecology of nature and evolution , scientists explain the results of their study, which used data they obtained from a fossil-based reconstruction of the Neanderthal auditory system. After careful analysis, they were able to confirm that Neanderthals did indeed have the physiological characteristics that would be required to produce and understand a full spectrum of sound combinations.
“We don’t know if they had a language, but at least they had all the anatomical parts needed to have the kind of speech we have,” said Mercedes Conde-Valverde, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Alcalá and head of the author study. “It’s not that they have the same language, nor English, nor Spanish, none of that. But if we could hear them, we would recognize that they were human. ”
A Homo sapiens skull (left) and a Neanderthal skull: different, but also extremely similar in terms of speech abilities. (hairymuseummatt (original photo), DrMikeBaxter (derivative work) / CC BY-SA 2.0 )
Use of technology to confirm Neanderthal speech ability
For the purposes of their analysis, the scientists used sophisticated medical imaging software to make accurate three-dimensional models of the Neanderthal auditory system, using the results obtained from computed tomography of fossil skulls. Understanding what Neanderthals could hear is key to understanding what they could say, and images obtained using this high-tech approach revealed that Neanderthals ’auditory abilities were strongly attuned to the sounds associated with human speech.
As a control, the research team used the same technique to build fossil-based virtual reconstructions of the auditory abilities of hominins Sima de los Huesos, another long-standing primate that has been identified as the most immediate ancestor of the Neanderthals. In particular, the anatomical features needed to hear and distinguish human-like speech were lacking in this species, making it clear that such a refined auditory structure was not so common.
A Sima de los Huesos skull (pictured) was also created for study using a fossil-based virtual reconstruction. The study concluded that this species could not “hear” sounds like Neanderthals. (UtaUtaNapishtim / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
With an accurate representation of the architecture of the Neanderthal ear cavity in hand, the scientists were able to assess the Neanderthal’s ability to detect sounds that oscillate at a frequency of up to 5,000 cycles (or five kilohertz) for second. Compared to the Sima de los Huesos people, Neanderthals were better equipped to detect and distinguish sounds in the range of four to five kilohertz, placing them on the same level as modern humans.
The researchers were also able to calculate the frequency range, or bandwidth, of sounds that Neanderthals had the ability to hear and understand. Verbal communication requires relatively large bandwidth, as the acoustic signals of a typical language occur at very varied frequencies. Again, the results of Neanderthal speech showed relative equivalence with modern humans, as well as better hearing ability compared to their immediate primate ancestors.
Previous studies on Neanderthal theoretical speech have focused on its anatomical ability to produce vowel sounds. What this new study revealed, however, was very different.
Neanderthal hearing was specially adjusted to detect sounds associated with consonants, the added elements that can turn simple “oohs”, “aahs” and “uuhs” into more complex and meaningful words. The study’s author, Conde-Valverde, identified the sounds “s”, “k”, “t” and “th” among which Neanderthals could hear differently.
“Most previous studies on Neanderthal speech abilities focused on their ability to produce the main vowels in spoken English,” explained Rolf Quam, a professor of anthropology at Binghamton University and a participant in the study. . “However, we believe this emphasis is out of place, as the use of consonants is a way to include more information in the voice signal and also separates human speech and language from the communication patterns of almost everyone else. primates “.
In other words, this finding is highly suggestive, as it identifies a capacity found exclusively in Neanderthals and homo sapiens, primate cousins who were apparently unique in their ability to produce and understand the sounds of various syllables associated with a authentic language.
A modern human (left) and a Neanderthal (right). They look quite similar and now, according to the latest study, we know that Neanderthal speech abilities were not too different from those of modern humans. Daniela Hitzemann (left photo), Stefan Scheer (right photo) / unknown (reconstructions) / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
Neanderthal speech ability makes them “equal” to humans
Fossil studies have established that Neanderthals possessed the anatomical tools needed to make and hear all or most of the sounds used in language. Studies of their skulls also revealed that their heads were large enough to contain brains similar in size to those of modern humans.
Of course, these facts alone do not show that Neanderthals had the skills and cognitive abilities needed to construct languages, such as the authors of the Ecology of nature and evolution study fully admits.
However, other evidence related to Neanderthal culture, society, and technology strongly suggests that they would have had the mental capacity to create and disseminate understandable language.
Excavations of Neanderthal sites have revealed that these extinct cousins of modern humans created and used a series of stone tools, made jewelry that they apparently wore for decorative purposes, left behind rock art that revealed valuable data about their lifestyle and thought processes, dead, and often managed to survive in harsh or marginal climates that would have severely tested their ingenuity and adaptability.
All this behavior involves significant intelligence, of a practical, abstract and symbolic nature. Exactly the kind of intelligence that would be expected in a species that created and used language.
Is it enough to end the debate over whether Neanderthals had a language or languages? At least one expert thinks so.
“These results are particularly gratifying,” said University of Alcalá paleontologist Ignacio Martínez, Conde-Valverde’s colleague and another esteemed participant in the study. “We believe, after more than a century of research on the issue, that we have given a conclusive answer to the question about Neanderthal speech abilities.”
The full report is available at Nature, DOI: 10.1038 / s41559-021-01391-6
Top image: 3D model and virtual reconstruction of the ear in a modern human (left) and a Neanderthal (right), which was used to determine Neanderthal auditory and speech abilities. Source: Mercedes Conde-Valverde / Ecology of nature and evolution
By Nathan Falde