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Neanderthals talked like us half a million years ago and could even have shaped today's language
Daily Mail ^ | 10 July 2013 | SARAH GRIFFITHS

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 ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; humanevolution; neandertal; neandertals; neanderthal; neanderthals
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To: GeronL
"they even spoke cursive"

I'm sure it sounded like a

41 posted on 07/10/2013 3:46:39 PM PDT by Wuli (qu)
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To: faucetman
Only problem is the earth is only tens of thousands years old.

6,016 years old. Bishop Ussher says so. :-)

42 posted on 07/10/2013 6:31:17 PM PDT by Kip Russell (Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors -- and miss. ---Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Rebelbase

HA.... HAHA....HAHAHA, THATS JUST ...nevermind


43 posted on 07/10/2013 6:47:53 PM PDT by DanielRedfoot (Creepy Ass Cracker)
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To: Pharmboy; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

Thanks Pharmboy.
The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve

in local libraries
"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

44 posted on 07/11/2013 3:09:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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http://phys.org/news/2013-07-neanderthals-speech-language-modern-humans.html


45 posted on 07/11/2013 3:09:53 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (McCain or Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Pharmboy; SunkenCiv

Mongo like candy.


46 posted on 07/11/2013 10:06:37 AM PDT by wildbill
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