[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 6/24/2007. A re-ping. Thanks blam.

[ConorMacNessa]

I know I'm awfully late jumping in to this discussion, but I seem to recall reading, some years ago, that the development of complex speech in humans was not delayed by lack of intellectual capacity, but by the architecture of the hominid throat. If I recall correctly, it had to do with the horizontal orientation of the pongid throat compared to the more vertical orientation of the human throat. I can't remember the particulars, but the gist of it was that once the architecture of the throat changed, coherent speech followed.