Neanderthals could speak like us

Another discovery that brings Sapiens closer to its cousin.

Long portrayed as a brute, Neanderthals, discovered 165 years ago, are steadily rising as we examine their abilities and habits.

Researchers now claim that he possessed, like modern humans, the physical ability to produce and hear sophisticated speech.

What if Homo sapiens hadn't been the only human species to use an evolved form of language?

Due to lack of registration, it is not known if Neanderthals had very elaborate discussions, but the new study published Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution assures that he had the anatomy for it.

This skill goes through a good ear.

Fossilized skulls, scanned and recreated in 3D, show that Neanderthals could hear a range of frequencies comparable in magnitude to modern humans.

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So far, research has shown that early hominids had less sophisticated speech and hearing skills.

The closest ancestors of the Neanderthals found in Atapuerca, Spain, were also less well endowed than their descendants, according to new work from scientists at the universities of Alcalá and Complutense in Madrid, and Binghamton in New York State.

Closer to WhatsApp than Morse code

“Neanderthals before greater bandwidth in oral communication, which meant that more different sounds could be used to compose messages,” says Mercedes Conde-Valverde, who led the study.

“A language based on few signs is very inefficient: you just have to compare Morse code with WhatsApp!

The presence of a higher bandwidth in Neanderthals indicates the existence of a more complex and effective oral language.

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Thus, this ancestor, to whom we owe about 2% of our DNA, could have used consonants, a feature that is not found in any other primate, except humans of course.

“Consonants are high frequency sounds and require the bandwidth of hearing to be extended to these frequencies.

The bandwidth of hearing in chimpanzees, for example, does not reach the frequencies of most consonants.

These animals, like almost all mammals, do not use these sounds in their communication, ”emphasizes Mercedes Conde-Valverde.

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For this professor at the University of Alcalá and her colleagues, that Neanderthals distinguished themselves in this way from her own ancestors came as a surprise, even if it goes hand in hand with what is now known about her complex behavior.

If he has sometimes crossed paths with Sapiens, it is at the same time that this parent would have tamed fire, mastered cave art, made jewelry ... and therefore, probably, chatted with his family.

And this, 120,000 years ago.

Future work could make it possible to continue the game of comparisons.

“Now we wonder what it was like to hear Homo sapiens from the same era.

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