Archaic Homo sapiens

Further information: Archaic Homo sapiens

Robin Dunbar has argued that Archaic Homo sapiens were the first to use language. Based on his
analysis of the relationship between brain size and hominid group size, he concluded that because
Archaic Homo sapiens had large brains, they must have lived in groups of over 120 individuals.
Dunbar argues that it was not possible for Hominids to live in such large groups without using
language, otherwise there could be no group cohesion and the group would disintegrate. By
comparison, chimpanzees live in smaller groups of up to 50 individuals.[5][6]

[edit] Homo heidelbergenis

See also: Homo heidelbergenis: Language

H. heidelbergensis was a close relative (most probably a migratory descendant) of Homo

ergaster. H. ergaster is thought to be the first hominin to vocalize[19] (possibly females engaging
in baby-talk), and that as H. heidelbergensis developed more sophisticated culture proceeded
from this point and possibly developed an early form of symbolic language.

[edit] Homo neanderthalensis

See also: Neanderthal behavior: Language

The discovery in 2007 of a Neanderthal hyoid bone suggests that Neanderthals may have been
anatomically capable of producing sounds similar to modern humans. The hypoglossal nerve,
which passes through the canal, controls the movements of the tongue and its size is said to
reflect speech abilities. Hominids who lived earlier than 300,000 years ago had hypoglossal
canals more akin to those of chimpanzees than of humans.[20][21][22]

However, although Neanderthals may have been anatomically able to speak, Richard G. Klein in
2004 doubted that they possessed a fully modern language. He largely bases his doubts on the
fossil record of archaic humans and their stone tool kit. For 2 million years following the
emergence of Homo habilis, the stone tool technology of hominids changed very little. Klein,
who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the crude stone tool kit of archaic
humans as impossible to break down into categories based on their function, and reports that
Neanderthals seem to have had little concern for the final form of their tools. Klein argues that
the Neanderthal brain may have not reached the level of complexity required for modern speech,
even if the physical apparatus for speech production was well-developed.[23][24] The issue of the
Neanderthal's level of cultural and technological sophistication remains a controversial one.

[edit] Homo sapiens

See also: Anatomically modern humans and Behavioral modernity

Anatomically modern humans first appear in the fossil record 195,000 years ago in Ethiopia. But
while they were modern anatomically, the archaeological evidence available leaves little
indication that they behaved any differently from the earlier Homo heidelbergensis. They retained
the same Acheulean stone tools and hunted less efficiently than did modern humans of the Late
Pleistocene.[25] The transition to the more sophisticated Mousterian takes place only about
120,000 years ago, and is shared by both H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis.

The development of fully modern behavior in H. sapiens, not shared by H. neanderthalensis or

any other variety of Homo, is dated to some 70,000 to 50,000 years ago. The development of
more sophisticated tools, for the first time constructed out of more than one material (e.g. bone or
antler) and sortable into different categories of function (such as projectile points, engraving
tools, knife blades, and drilling and piercing tools) are often taken as proof for the presence of
fully developed language, assumed to be necessary for the teaching of the processes of
manufacture to offspring.[23][26]

The greatest step[dubious – discuss] in language evolution would have been the progression from
primitive, pidgin-like communication to a creole-like language with all the grammar and syntax
of modern languages.[10] Many scholars believe that this step could only have been accomplished
with some biological change to the brain, such as a mutation. It has been suggested that a gene
such as FOXP2 may have undergone a mutation allowing humans to communicate.[dubious – discuss]
Evidence suggests that this change took place somewhere in East Africa around 100,000 to
50,000 years ago, which rapidly brought about significant changes that are apparent in the fossil
record.[10] There is still some debate as to whether language developed gradually over thousands
of years or whether it appeared suddenly.

The Broca's and Wernicke's areas of the primate brain also appear in the human brain, the first
area being involved in many cognitive and perceptual tasks, the latter lending to language skills.
The same circuits discussed in the primates' brain stem and limbic system control non-verbal
sounds in humans (laughing, crying, etc.), which suggests that the human language center is a
modification of neural circuits common to all primates. This modification and its skill for
linguistic communication seem to be unique to humans, which implies that the language organ
derived after the human lineage split from the primate (chimps and bonobos) lineage. Plainly
stated, spoken language is a modification of the larynx that is unique to humans.[9]

According to the Out of Africa hypothesis, around 50,000 years ago[27] a group of humans left
Africa and proceeded to inhabit the rest of the world, including Australia and the Americas,
which had never been populated by archaic hominids. Some scientists[28] believe that Homo
sapiens did not leave Africa before that, because they had not yet attained modern cognition and
language, and consequently lacked the skills or the numbers required to migrate. However, given
the fact that Homo erectus managed to leave the continent much earlier (without extensive use of
language, sophisticated tools, nor anatomical modernity), the reasons why anatomically modern
humans remained in Africa for such a long period remain unclear.
Homo ergaster was probably the first hominid to "use a human voice", [clarification needed] though its symbolic
cognition was probably somewhat limited compared to modern humans. It was thought for a long time
that H. ergaster was restricted in the physical ability to regulate breathing and produce complex sounds.
This was based on Turkana Boy's cervical vertebrae, which were far narrower than in later humans.
Discoveries of cervical vertebrae in Dmanisi, Georgia some 300,000 years older than those of Turkana
Boy are well within the normal human range. [15] It has been established, furthermore, that the Turkana
Boy probably suffered from a disease of the spinal column that resulted in narrower cervical vertebrae
than in modern humans[16] (as well as the older Dmanisi finds). While the Dmanisi finds have not been
established definitively as H. ergaster; they are older than Turkana Boy (the only definite ergaster
vertebrae on record), and thereby suggest kinship to ergaster. Turkana Boy, therefore, may be an
anomaly.

There is no archaeological evidence that Homo ergaster made use of symbolic thought (such as figurative
art), but the well-evolved brain and physical capabilities (along with reconfiguration of ergaster's
breathing-apparatus) suggest some form of linguistic or symbolic communication. [dubious – discuss]

• Homo erectus (from the Latin ērĭgĕre, "to put up, set upright") is an extinct species of hominid
that originated in Africa—and spread as far as China and Java—from the end of the Pliocene
epoch to the later Pleistocene, about 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago

• lacking the fully developed structure of modern human language, but more developed than the
basic communication used by chimpanzees.
• The ability to speak arose hundreds of thousands of years ago

• Speaking has been with us for hundreds of millennia, writing only a few.

• Speaking developed in human beings naturally, but writing had to be invented.