Re: What is language? (was: OT hominids)
| From: | Cian Ross <cian@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Sunday, January 1, 2006, 15:34 |
|---|
On Sun, 2006-01-01 at 08:40, R A Brown wrote:
> I am sure that as soon proto-humans acquired a vocal tract (which I do
> *NOT* believe happen to certain individual overnight!), they were making
> all sorts of sounds; I just cannot believe that they would have been
> content with just grunts.
I suppose someone out there has already noted that the full capability
for the full set of human phonemes didn't have to arise all at once.
Once one has human-like lips (and enough control over them) one can make
labial consonants. The same holds for the mobile tongue and dental
consonants, etc. Maybe velars or other more-difficult (?) sounds came
last? In any case, once it's possible to make any kind of CV/etc.
syllables even of the simplest sort and even with a very limited
inventory of phonemes, human speech becomes possible. This strikes me
as being perhaps more like Hawaiian than like the comic-book
stereotypes.
Regards,
Cian Ross
cian@cox-internet.com
Reply