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Neanderthals Speak Again After 30,000 Years

Date:
April 21, 2008
Source:
Florida Atlantic University
Summary:
An anthropologist has reconstructed vocal tracts that simulate the sound of the Neanderthal voice. Using 50,000-year-old fossils from France and a computer synthesizer, the researcher has generated a recording of how a Neanderthal would pronounce the letter "e."
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Dr. Robert McCarthy, an assistant professor of anthropology in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters at Florida Atlantic University, has reconstructed vocal tracts that simulate the sound of the Neanderthal voice. 

Using 50,000-year-old fossils from France and a computer synthesizer, McCarthy’s team has generated a recording of how a Neanderthal would pronounce the letter “e.”  The brief recording doesn’t sound like any letter in modern languages, but McCarthy says that’s because Neanderthals lacked the “quantal vowels” modern humans use. Quantal vowels provide cues that help speakers with different size vocal tracts understand one another.

“They would have spoken a bit differently,” McCarthy said at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Columbus, Ohio in April. “They wouldn't have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language.”

Though quantal vowels make subtle differences in speech, their absence would have limited Neanderthal speech.  For example, Neanderthals would not be able to distinguish between the words ‘beat’ and ‘bit.’

For scientists, McCarthy’s work represents an exploration of life 30,000 years ago when Neanderthal humans, our closest extinct ancestor, lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.  The species died out mysteriously some 28,000 years ago.  

McCarthy has plans to eventually simulate an entire Neanderthal sentence.

McCarthy's simulation of a Neanderthal voice is available here.


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Materials provided by Florida Atlantic University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

Florida Atlantic University. "Neanderthals Speak Again After 30,000 Years." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 21 April 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421154426.htm>.
Florida Atlantic University. (2008, April 21). Neanderthals Speak Again After 30,000 Years. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421154426.htm
Florida Atlantic University. "Neanderthals Speak Again After 30,000 Years." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080421154426.htm (accessed October 11, 2024).

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