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 ...
Grok (that means ‘ping’ in Neanderthal).
After chatting with a few kids hanging outside a local high school, it’s a plausible theory.
I’m equally skeptical concerning early assessments that the Neanderthals were cognitively inferior. For one thing, none of them were Democrats.
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I have trouble grokking that.
Neandertals had larger brains than ‘modern’ man.
Very, very good. And rapidamente!
Ah yes...”Stranger in a Strange Land.” One of my favorite books from high school days. It was the only thing that came to mind. Thanks!
WE HAVE A WINNER!
LMAO,
GtG
PS Thanks, I needed that!
“Ah yes...”Stranger in a Strange Land.” One of my favorite books from high school days. It was the only thing that came to mind.”
Mine as well. :)
“Thanks!”
My pleasure.
it is a shame that no Neanderthal libraries survived. They would be an academic treasure.
Ironic; Neanderthals talked like us, and now we speak like Neanderthals.
What’ old is new again.
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