Teleology & evolution: Vocal cord development (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 13:49 (2696 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: 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?

DAVID: McCrone (1991) did not know what has been discovered now about monkeys and apes. But his point that our speech anatomy changed tremendously before modern language developed is still the same.

I don’t know where ancient languages ended and “modern” languages began. Nor does anyone else. I regard my proposal below as being just as reasonable as the hypothesis that there was a sudden change when God intervened and fiddled with our vocal tracts. And if it is true that monkeys are capable of making the same sounds as us, I would regard that as supporting my case.

dhw: 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.

DAVID: Again structure came first, but you are correct, our ancestors had to learn to use their new anatomy and gradually developed proto-language which gradually modernized. The arrival of H. sapiens cemented the final event which was complex language, spoken reading, and writing.

I agree that proto-language evolved into the complex language we have today. What preceded protolanguage is a matter of speculation.