Posted on 07/10/2013 9:30:34 AM PDT by Pharmboy
[Note: headline edited slightly in order to fit]
Origins of modern language are ten times older than thought and could date back half a million years, according to Dutch researchers
It contradicts the popular idea that our modern language began with a sudden emergence of modernity presumably due to one or a few genetic mutations that gave rise to language
The scientists claim that far from being slow brutes, Neanderthals' cognitive capacities and culture were comparable to ours
Dutch researchers have claimed that our modern language can be traced back to stone age man - ten times older than previously thought
Our modern language can be traced back to Neanderthals living half a million years ago, scientists have claimed. Research increasingly seems to indicate that our close cousins, the Neanderthals, were much more similar to us than imagined even a decade ago.
Dutch researchers argue that the last common ancestor we shared with the Neanderthals around half a million years ago, shared speech and language with modern humans. They believe that the origins of out modern language are ten times older than previously thought. The scientists at the Max Planck Institute in the Netherlands are interested in the implications for understanding present day linguistic diversity. Popular opinion is that they spoke in primitive grunts, but Neanderthal man successfully inhabited vast swathes of western Eurasia for several hundreds of thousands of years, during harsh ages and milder interglacial periods.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I wonder what the first word was??? Or sentence??? “bring me a beer honey”....or “Nice tatas on that narnook”
Proof of deevolution. Man isn't coming from the apes. He's going to them.
We are Neanderthals.
speculation on speculation on speculation, not science
Only problem is the earth is only tens of thousands years old.
Not one of my favorite Heinlein novels (I prefer the juveniles), but still better than 99.9% of what's written these days...
The headline is a bit misleading; while there were humans with proto-Neanderthal traits as early as 600,000–350,000 years ago, Neanderthals as such didn’t exist until approximately 135,000 years ago.
This is a very poorly written article. This article is very poorly written. Very poorly written is this article. Very poorly this article is written. Written very poorly, this article is.
they even spoke cursive
“I say old chap, you seem to have a piece os mastadon stuck in your teeth, by jove!”
It ain’t wrote right by the writer, right?
lol
It seems to me that I knew this. Wouldn’t there be physical and brain changes that evolved along with growing language use? That takes a long time. As long as we’re speculating anyway.
She does NOT look like a Neanderthal or a cave...person.
More like Jabba’s sister.
I can only imagine what they would be saying????
Yo true dat fo sho.
Well, 23andme says I am 2.7% Neanderthal, just above the 2.6% average for the group of northern Euros it has me in. And from the looks of their groupings, this does not mean Scandinavian, since I do not have that blood in me; what they seem to mean is not Italian, Spanish or Greek (I guess).
I agree, but it is interesting nonetheless, and allows for a very funny FR thread.
The funny thing is, Africans have no Neanderthal genes in them at all; only Euros and Asians; Asians have the most, up to 4%. There never were any Neanders in Africa.
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