Re: Tones to make up for lack of phonemes

They could make bilabial (for lack of a better word) fricatives though.
How ever, I believe that the main problem most animals have with
"talking" is that they can't control the air pressure exerted by their
lungs on their vocal cords (or whatever it is they have). Humans can
hold our breath, and we can breath softly or loudly and such and such.
Other animals can do stuff like this(diving animals hold their breath,
predators can't be rasping around in the undergrowth), but with much
less control. A good book to read about it is

The Biology and Evolution of Language by Philip Lieberman

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