It is becoming increasingly obvious our ancient family the Neanderthals were not so different from us.
They had dental problems. They can do math – probably. Even some Covid-19 risk factors may have been transmitted to these extinct people.
But a new study takes a different approach to the Neanderthal human connection, and examines whether Neanderthal people the same speech ability as modern people.
Although the research is speculative, it points to an ancient vocal communication system that opposes what people are capable of today.
What’s new – Research published in the journal on Monday Natural ecology and evolution suggests that Neanderthals did have a hearing range similar to that of modern humans, which implies that they could do so deliver complex speech.
Michael Breyl is a post-doctoral researcher at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich who wrote on Neanderthal cognition. He was not involved in this study, but told Reverse it is related to previous research.
“Neanderthals, although morphologically different, have a hearing ability that is attuned to the modern speech range,” says Breyl.
Background – Previous research suggests that the small inner ear bones of Neanderthal people looked different from human ear buds, but that they still “make a similar hearing range as modern humans possible,” Breyl explains.
The evolution that drove this capacity began before Neanderthals existed.
“H. heidelbergensis“, the chronospecies from which Neanderthals evolved, were apparently already well on their way in terms of sound perception and fall into the lower spectrum of modern humans’ hearing ability,” says Breyl.
Why does this evolution thing matter? According to Breyl, non-human primates use almost exclusively vowel-like sounds, but human language relies on consonants uniquely.
“Human language involves a wider variety of vowels and, more importantly, consonants that allow for a much more fluid vocalization of speech sounds, as they effectively connect vowels and enable the distinction of words themselves,” he says.
This suggests that we can link the evolution of a species’ hearing abilities to its ability to speak – a precursor of language. This new study examines the connection.
The authors of the study write:
“Although paleontology cannot study the evolution of the ‘software’ of language, it can contribute to our understanding of the evolution of the ‘hardware’ of speech.”
How they did it – Using CT scanning technology, the researchers made 3D reconstructions of five Neanderthal skulls, along with six skulls of other ancient hominins found in the Sima de los Huesos cave in Spain. These other hominins are considered to be a transitional group between H. heidelbergensis and Neanderthals.
Using these reconstructions, the scientists calculated two aspects of the outer and middle ear in Neanderthals and the Sima de los Huesos hominins, and compared them with modern humans.
“Neanderthals developed the auditory abilities to support a vocal communication system as effective as modern human speech. “
The first aspect is the audio power transmission, which refers to the speed of sound, or sound, transmitted by the outer and middle ears.
Determining the transmit power also enabled the team to calculate what the “occupied bandwidth“from the ears of the Neanderthal. This bandwidth is directly related to the” efficiency of the vocal communication system of a species, “the study team writes.
What they found – According to scientists, the occupied bandwidth of the ear was greater in the Neanderthals than in the Sima de los Huesos hominins.
More importantly, the bandwidth occupied – the hearing range of the Neanderthal – was similar to that of modern humans. “Neanderthals have developed the hearing ability to support a vocal communication system as effectively as modern human speech,” the study’s authors write.
This overall finding suggests that Neanderthals and modern humans had a similar hearing and vocal range – despite having different ear morphologies, Breyl explains.
Why it matters – This new study expands on our previous understanding of Neanderthal speech in exciting ways.
“What this new study is doing is basically reinforcing previous findings and implicating them more likely,” Breyl said.
But it also says something about the evolution of speech. Although we do not understand the language that Neanderthals used to communicate, the study indicates that they at least had the necessary hardware to speak. Their abilities were like ours. What they chose to do with these abilities is not known.
The increased occupied bandwidth in Neanderthals compared to their predecessors, in turn, indicates the ability to produce high-frequency voiceless consonants, which according to the study may be ‘the evolutionarily oldest group of consonants’.
Voiceless consonants usually refer to the English letters “t,” “k,” “f,” “s” and “th.”
Certain types of voiceless consonants occur in more than 90 percent of the world’s languages, which shows how important these consonants are for the development of human speech.
“However, it is important to note that ‘speech’ should not be confused with ‘language’, ‘says Breyl.
“One indicates the ability to produce sounds and the other is a cognitive system that can be externalized as speech.”
What’s next – According to the study, the increase in the band’s occupied bandwidth probably occurred in both Neanderthals and humans, some time after their last common ancestor.
The narrower – and slightly less modern – occupied bandwidth in the ancient Sima de los Huesos hominins confirms this finding.
Proto-language, or language, was formerly used by at least H. heidelbergensis, Says Breyl. It is theorized that the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, or another being who lived very close to that ancestor, ‘formed the morphology of both Neanderthals and modern humans by acting as a selection pressure’, adds he at.
It is not yet entirely clear how this evolution took place in the ear. The researchers propose two possible hypotheses that they want to test in further research.
- Neanderthals and humans may have developed these vocal communication functions independently to adapt to their environment – a process known as convergent evolution.
- It is possible that reproduction between Neanderthals and humans generated gene flow between the two species, which led to the evolution of the larger bandwidth.
If no fluency has occurred, our speech and ultimately our complex language ability may be due to our old Neanderthal family.
“It does not automatically imply modern language usage … but fully modern Neanderthal language is at least in the kingdom as a result. [and other] findings, “says Breyl.
Summary: The study of auditions in fossil hominins is of great importance, given the connection with intraspecific vocal communication. Although the auditory functions in early hominins and in the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins have been studied, less is known about the hearing abilities of the Neanderthals. Here we give a detailed approach to their auditory capabilities. Based on computerized tomography scans and a comprehensive model from the field of auditory bioengineering, we established the transmission of sound through the outer and middle ears and calculated the occupied bandwidth in Neanderthals. The occupied bandwidth is directly related to the efficiency of the vocal communication system of a species. Our results show that the occupied bandwidth of Neanderthals was greater than the Sima de los Huesos hominins and similar to the existing humans, implying that Neanderthals developed the hearing ability to support a vocal communication system as effectively as modern human speech.