Teleology & evolution: Vocal cord development (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, December 13, 2016, 12:47 (2697 days ago) @ David Turell

QUOTE: "Monkeys and apes are unable to learn new vocalizations, and for decades it has been widely believed that this inability results from limitations of their vocal anatomy: larynx, tongue and lips. But an international team of scientists, led by Tecumseh Fitch at the University of Vienna and Asif Ghazanfar at Princeton University, has now looked inside monkeys' vocal tracts with x-rays, and found them to be much more flexible than thought before. The study indicates that the limitations that keep nonhuman primates from speaking are in their brains, rather than their vocal anatomy.”

dhw: I’m in no position to argue with them or with you about the anatomical details. My comments were based on what the researchers have told us, and if they are correct, then there is no point arguing that human language was made possible by changes to the larynx, tongue and lips. If they are wrong, then you will stick to your divine preparatory dabbling, and I will stick to my cell communities responding to the need for new sounds.

DAVID: To protect your favorite theory, you persist in ignoring facts I present to you. In his book, The Ape that Spoke , Mc Crone discusses vocal tract changes in pre-sapiens human fossils million of years before modern language appeared. He describes what H. erectus speech might have sounded like, before modern language appeared. And if they needed it, why did ape and monkey cell communities fail to develop their brains for speech since you make it sound so simple whenever you call it into play.

Once again, I can only judge by what the experts tell us. I assume that McCrone shares your belief that certain changes were essential to the appearance of what you call “modern language”. The new research tells us they were not, and that monkey vocal organs are not as restricted as we thought they were. Did McCrone know that? He is of course welcome to imagine what homo erectus’s speech might have sounded like. We have already discussed what you mean by “modern language”. I proposed that early humans communicated with limited sounds, just like their fellow animals, but these gradually became more complex as their enhanced consciousness required more and more of them. No “modern language” as such – just a step-by-step evolution of sounds and structures, in precisely the same manner as languages continue to evolve today, though we now have the written word as well. The only new factor we have now is the suggestion that early humans didn't need specially developed voice mechanisms to begin this process. As regards the "failure" to develop the brain, you have ignored my earlier comment, which was that this new research does not explain our enhanced consciousness. That is one of the great mysteries which enable me to accept the possibility of divine intervention, though perhaps you have forgotten that I am an agnostic.