
The Neanderthal Throat – Did Neanderthals Speak? - FossilHominid
https://www.sapiens.org/column/field-trips/did-neanderthals-speak/
======
L_226
I read Jean M. Auel's prehistoric fiction series "Earth's Children" [0] when I
was young. In it, Neanderthals are depicted as having a complex sign/gesture
based language, with additional limited vocalisations for alert/alarm
communications etc. It is a major feature of the series, and pretty
interesting.

I recommend the series if you're interested in primitive skills, as it also
describes many prehistoric technologies in detail (e.g. tool and weapon
construction, food collection, medecine etc.). Sure, it is a work of fiction,
but it's interesting and Auel did a lot of research during writing.

[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_Children](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_Children)

------
sunstone
People get by with sign language pretty well and they typically don't use much
of their vocal equipment. In fact, it's quite possible that vocal language and
sign language co-evolved in earlier hominids as the vocal tract slowly evolved
for more sophisticate sound generation.

~~~
chmod775
I'm pretty sure you need to be "pre-wired" in order to learn advanced language
in an acceptable timespan.

Even the prime examples of primates we taught sign language to weren't very
impressive next to a human.

So it's probably not just about vocal cords or having hands to wave around.

~~~
oblio
I think there's study about "feral humans", kids abandoned when they were
really young that managed to survive. When reintegrated into society after 0
interaction with humans they were unable to grasp more complex grammar
concepts. They would get a full vocabulary but were unable to form complex
phrases.

So there's definitely a component of the brain that is there but needs to be
activated explicitly for "modern" humans to work as we except them to do. I
don't know what the impact for sign language was though...

------
AstralStorm
What if they used a click based or tone based language instead of words as we
use them? These do not require advanced vocal faculties at all... We're being
presumptuous here, as there have been documented instances for sapiens sapiens
doing that.

~~~
stareatgoats
> there have been documented instances for sapiens sapiens doing that

As well as the documented cases of humans being presumptuous. Just to bolster
your case.

------
Causality1
TL;DR: Analysis of a neanderthal hyoid bone indicated that neanderthals did
not posses a series of air sacs, common to apes, that preclude complex vocal
speech, and thus were mechanically capable of producing sounds comparable in
complexity to human language.

------
ebg13
The author Anna Goldfield also has a pretty cool podcast about archaeology and
anthropology called The Dirt which I can recommend to anyone interested in
stuff like this.

------
iscrewyou
Radiolab had a really cool episode on this recently (02/28/2019). Part 3 of
the episode 'Asking for a Friend' starts at 34 min mark:
[https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/asking-
friend](https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/asking-friend)

It's really cool.

------
dayandtime
Yes the did:

[https://youtu.be/o589CAu73UM](https://youtu.be/o589CAu73UM)

