“The Neanderthal or Neandertal, is an extinct member of the Homo genus that is known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia.
The Neandertal was named after theologian Joachim Neander, who lived nearby in Düsseldorf in the late 17th century. “Neander” is a classicized form of the common German surname Neumann. In turn, Neanderthals were named after “Neander Valley”, where the first Neanderthal remains were found. The term Neanderthal Man was coined in 1863 by Anglo-Irish geologist William King.
First reconstruction of Neanderthal manThe original German pronunciation (regardless of spelling) is with the sound /t/. In American English, the term is commonly anglicised to /th/ as in thin, though scientists usually use /t/, and the latter, non-anglicised, pronunciation (followed by the German long a) is preferred in British English.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neandertal_man
