11/23/2011

From Grunts to Grammar: The Evolution of Language

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Homo habilis was probably the first hominin who started to speak. Which means approximatly 2.5 million years ago.  The author includes: "Just as important as the brain in language development are changes in the larynx (the voice box). The larynx contains the vocal cords that allow us to produce sounds from our throat." that can tell us that through time, eventually, our voice box has changed. So, as we started to change also our larynx did. Dr. Laitman a professor of anatomy at the Mt. Sinat School of Medicine in NYC says: "The larynx disengaged from the back door of the nasal cavity. The disengagement would have radically changed the way our ancestors breathed, swallowed and made sounds."
Mouth breathing isn't common in mammals but we do. It maybe started when our ancestors started to hunt. Mouth breathing led more oxygen in and out the lungs. Maybe we started using language/speech the way we do now. Dr.Conkey, director of the Archaeological Research Facility declares: "Humans or hominins have been making stone tools for probably 2 million years, so it's unlikely that complex language had to exist for that. We have strong primate heritage of learning by imitation. Chimpanzees and many other nonhuman primates don't need complex language to learn such things as washing food, picking up a hammer stone and cracking nuts, and even --- in the case of chimpanzees ---  stripping leaves off twigs and using them to fish termites out of a termite hill." that means that to have tools we somehow needed to communicate. This conclusion could be the result of the same tool in different areas. Though, we're sure that 35,000 to/or 40,000 years ago language was used.

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