Grunt Work: Scientists Re-Create Neanderthal Speech

April 16, 2008 -- After a nearly 30,000-year silence, Neanderthals are speaking once more, thanks to researchers who have modelled the hominids' larynx to replicate the possible sounds they would have made, scientists say.

The work, led by Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, is based on Neanderthal fossils found in France.

The item includes an audio snippet in which a computer synthesizer replicates how a Neanderthal would say an "e" and compares this with the same sound as made by modern humans.

A study published last October in the journal Current Biology found that Neanderthals carried the only human gene that has so far been linked to language.

This implies Neanderthals had at least some of the genetic prerequisites for acquiring language.

Even so, experts question whether Neanderthals had the necessary biological gear, such as fine nerves connected to tongue muscles and lips, that would enable them do more than just grunt.

Their vocal tracts lacked the ability to make "quantal vowels" that underpin modern speech, and so oral communication would have been limited, McCarthy believes.

"They would have spoken a bit differently. They wouldn't have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language," he said.

Squat and slope-browed, Neanderthals are our closest extinct ancestors.

They lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170,000 years, then died out mysteriously some 28,000 years ago or more.

Two main theories have emerged to explain their disappearance: either they were wiped out by Homo sapiens -- the new, smarter hominid on the block -- or they interbred with the newcomers, which implies that our genome today may have Neanderthal DNA.

Related Links:

Discovery News blog: Born Animal

Discovery News blog: Archaeorama

The Hall of Human Ancestors

Early Human Phylogeny