Re: clan of the cave bear conlang

On Sat, 8 Jan 2000 00:12:02 -0500, Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:

> Paul&Kathy wrote:
> > H. neanderthalenis (?) would probably not have had as good breath
> > control as later species (all control from the diaphram (sp?),
> > nothing from the pharynx or larynx).  Utterances are likely to have
> > been very short, probably stress, tone and tenseness (and poss.
> > length?) would not have been phonemic.  Also, they'd have been
> > fairly strictly timed to the natural breath rhythm.
>
> How could they know whether or not that's so?  What clues would there be
> as to how finely they could control their breathing?
>
It's the bone-structure of the neck.  They can tell (fairly certainly)
where the various pieces of the vocal tract (larynx, pharynx, etc)
would have been positioned, and the size and type of muscles that
would have been present to control them.  Likewise, for the
(probable) muscle structure in the chest and abdomen, as well as
lung capacity vs body mass measurements.

From this, they (*) deduce that neanderthal man would have had
less ability to control the airflow at the throat than modern man.  I
don't have a reference, sorry, but that's the gist of the
conversations I've seen on usenet, at least ISTR it that way.

(*) It's probably worth noting that "they", while mainly fairly
respectable (and occasionally even respect_ed_!) scientists and
academics, can on occasion be just as lunatic and hot-headed as
the next person <G>

(It is, admittedly, conceivable that neadnderthal man could have
better airflow control than is theorised, and after all, this list is
about creativity over science. YMMV)

I'm currently digging around cyberspace trying to find some good
references, but you could look on http://www.deja.com/ for the
sci.anthropology.paleo newsgroup and ask them yourself (or search
for "laryn descen" in the same group) if you really feel brave.


---
Pb