Re: THEORY: Re : Re: THEORY: Question about the evolution of language

ian tattersall attributes the success of homo sapiens over the neanderthal
population approx 40,000 years ago to the inauguration of symbolic thought.
"art symbols, music, notation, language, feelings of mistery, mastery of
diverse materials and sheer cleverness: all these attributes and more ,
were foreign to the neanderthals and are native to us"
in "becoming human" he writes
"for the 1st time, innovation was a routine part of human life
that could easily be shared with others.
against that kind of competition, no other human species could hold out"



>> Also, the Neanderthals probably had something that we'd recognize as a
>>  human language, but opinions differ on how different it was from
>>  modern ones.
>
>shut up Lars, this is not a discussion for amateurs.
>i tell you what : nearndaht... uh... nandret... uh.... Messrs. N.
>had average brain bigger than ours so they
>must have had a better language or no need for language anymore.
>they could telepath but not have tables turn because they had no tables.
>according to some field researcher (Corn Field, Arizona)
>the last Neanderthal words were :
>
>"ngng0q "qxxxxn'kmffxhhhhhh."
>which roughly transmates :
>"that cute little neanderthal-like girl
>stuck me with a hell of a disease
>aaarghhhh".
>
>ng is [N] but rather g than n
>" is a glotal stop slightly uvular and post laryngal at the same time
>(doesn't mean anything : it simply allows Neanderthals to drink and
>breathe at the same time)
>q is arabic q with a smooth ejection of saliva
>x is very throat-hurting [X] (especially the third one from the left)
>h is like hhhhhhell
>0 is the only vowel, like uuuuhhh on the beach when Pam Andertals
>runs to rescue grasping her 3rd buoy.
>
>i'm SURE i helped Tom get the truth about Mr. N's language
>(especially the speak-&-drink stuff which the least inane argument
>i read in years about it - so to speak).
>
>mathias