The Evolution Of Human Speech

The article’s purpose was to provide normative data for phonological development of British-English speaking children. The article focused on two aspects of speech development: the age of acquisition of sounds such a phonetic acquisition and the age in which error patterns stopped. In addition, this article discussed the effects that age, socioeconomic status and gender may have on speech sound development. The authors hypothesized that girls would display higher levels of phonological accuracy as compared to boys and that children from higher socio-economic families would have higher levels of phonological skills than children from low socio-economic families. It was also hypothesized that phonological skills should develop with age, that

Theories of language learning can further be broken into theories for speech-sound errors and treatment for these disorders. One of these theories is sensory-perceptual theory with sound production training. This relates to errors due caused by a breakdown in sensory and motor systems of individual sound units (Peña-Brooks & Hedge, 2015). In contrast, the phonological theory suggests errors unrelated to motor skill but, instead, to misrepresentations of phonological rules (MacReynolds, 1987). While neither approach has proven to be most effective in the generalization of correct productions of speech sounds, this paper will be using the sensory-perceptual theory of language acquisition.

Neanderthals share many biological similarities to that of modern day humans, giving rise to the idea of a Neanderthal humanity. One similarity was shown in a recent article published in 2013 on a scientific study done on the Neanderthal hyoid bone called the Kebra 2 hyoid which was found in 1898 in the Kebra caves. The article is called Micro-Biomechanics of the Kebra 2 Hyoid and Its Implications for Speech in Neanderthals. The study involved using a range of computational techniques to examine the mechanical nature and differences between the Neanderthal hyoid and human hyoid bones. The results from the study found, examining the macroscopic anatomy of the Kebra 2 hyoid that it was virtually identical to that of a human’s hyoid bone. Many

Although there is no direct evidence and a species language or their language capabilities do not fossilize, coupled with more modern techniques being used today and archeological evidence, it is possible now to study this topic with more success than in previous years. There is a record that supports the suggestion of Homo neandertal speech capabilities. Previous to the recovery of an intact middle paleolithic hyoid bone, the reconstructed vocal tract and the FOXP2 gene, the lack of evidence on the speech capabilities of Homo neandertals led most scholars to regard the topic as unsuitable for serious study

There is no time better than now to be Deaf because of American Sign Language (ASL) being viewed as a respectable foreign language, the access to interpreters, and increased opportunities for hearing people with deaf children.

Despite having numerous species roaming the Earth, infants and young children are more fascinated with human speech. There are certain characteristics in human speech that distinguish it from any other species found in Earth. Previous studies performed by speech language pathologists show that infants and young children are particularly fond of familiar voices, and are easily able to respond more quickly to them as opposed to strangers. Whether the adults realize it or not, they speak to their children differently than to an adult. The intonation and rhythm in the adult’s voice are usually different around young children, causing the adults to be able to get the children’s attention. Over the years, speech language pathologists have conducted

Additionally, the phylogenetic trees were further supported through the measurements of jaw length and locations of the foramen magnum. First, the foramen magnum was observed to be more towards the middle of the skull for modern human (6.45cm) and Neanderthal (9.4cm) only which further supports the idea that these two species have very closely related to each other (Figure 13.1). The other six primates had their foramen magnum located more towards the back of the skull (Figure 13.1). Secondly, the jaw length of human and Neanderthal were similar with modern human having jaw length of 9.55cm and Neanderthal having a length of 10.5cm (Figure 13.1). On the other hand, a more similar jaw length was found in gorilla (15.7cm), Sumatran orangutan

A human being’s capacity to articulate and deduce arbitrary sounds and symbols into something of which conveys meaning, may indeed be one of the most remarkable characteristics of brain. Research presented in Flinker et al., (2015) infer that there are two areas of the brain that are imperative for both the understanding and production of both verbal and written communication. Broca’s area, located in the left frontal lobe of the brain is primarily responsible for the production of speech, that is, the movements required to produce fluent speech and language (Flinker et al., 2015). The second region of the brain associated with language is known as Wernicke’s area, of which is located on the border between

Petitto & Marentette (1991) provides key evidence to suggest that ‘babbling’ is in fact a brain-based language capacity which enhances with maturity and not a speech-based phenomenon based on physical vocal maturation [1]. To reach this conclusion Petitto & Marentette (1991) conducted an experiment in which they analysed the vocal babbling of infants as well as the manual babbling of deaf infants [1]. The relevance of this decision is based on the fact, that sign language, like all other languages, is developed through language acquisition, thus if there is no correlation between manual babbling and vocal babbling, this would strength the stance that babbling is the product of physical maturation. The study, however, did conclude that manual

The backbone structure of language lies within two fundamental theories, continuity based theory and discontinuity based theory. Continuity theory suggests that human language is another form of animal communication, but it is far more complicated. It can “be can be derived evolutionarily by well-understood processes operating on the kind

There are many different ways in which humans can communicate as well as animals, but it is speech that is one of the most distinguishing capabilities in which humans only possess. Speech is defined differently from language. Speech is the vocalized form of communication. It is based upon the syntactical combination of many sounds to make different words that are drawn from extremely large vocabularies. Animal communication consists of only a few distinct sounds or calls in order to communicate immediate situations for survival purposes, such as danger, hunger, and

The origin of speech in Homo sapiens is controversial topic since the problem is related to humans' unprecedented use of the tongue, lips and vocal organs as instruments of communication. As we know, the other animals vocalize, but do not use the tongue to modulate sounds. The most interesting scenario about this evidence, with regards to human language evolution, is the lip-smacking. According to scientists, lip-smacking has been observed as the first step towards the evolution of speech, although it is a phenomenon common in every primate. The evolution of distinctively human speech capacities has become a distinct and in many ways separate area of scientific research. Many studies have been done throughout the history regarding the origins of human language. The article about the Gelada monkeys of

The article is structured in an organized matter he explains his experiment in the first section, giving background history on the subject (language) and gives a brief explanation on his main points. He later explains his main points each one separately and in his conclusion explains how all of his arguments together play a significant role in language. The purpose of this article is to prove that there are more underlying keys that make human unique beside language and recursion. Also, to prove that humans have preexisting conditions that allow them to speak and understand language. However, he also investigates why animals do not evolve any language. He conducts this experiment by testing on tamarin monkeys and discovers that these monkeys do not recombine mental elements to learn recursive- and non- recursive language. The logic his analysis is clear and states the points that play a part in the process of language. For example, voluntary control of sensory- motor systems this explains the preexisting capacity that humans have, which is

Allowing that language is defined by the ability to speak, Physiological evidence shows that humans have feature which make them specially adapted to talk. For example, human beings have a developed brain structure and a flexible tongue in order to make different sounds. On the other hand, chimpanzees and higher primates have immature vocal tracts, which are narrow. Speaking is therefore a species specific characteristic of homo sapiens. Advancements

The insula is defined as a large cortical region stretched along the floor of the Sylvian fissure (Kemmerer, 2013. Ch. 6 p. 33). Because the insula is a more hidden structure, it has only recently received attention for its role in language and speech. Damage to the insula is rarely caused in isolation, making it difficult to determine whether deficits are solely associated with insula damage or other areas. A growing number of studies have proposed that the insula plays a role in complex articulatory coordination and syntactic encoding. In combination the available evidence on the insula support its role in the following areas: AOS, word repetition, production of complex clusters, pseudowords, and non-native syllables, word inflection,