Is there any evidence that Homo Erectus use a spoken language?

Question

Hello. I was studying of Homo Erectus and I suddenly wondered if Homo Erectus really use a spoken language
like teacher said. I tried to search for the evidence in Internet
but I couldnt find it. Thats why I am asking of it now.
Is there any evidence that Homo Erectus use a spoken language? I need your help. Thanks. :)

Answer 1

USED, yes...They are now extinct, as of about 27,000 years ago!

A 1.7 million year old H.erectus, was found with evidence of a hyoid bone at the base of the throat, which functions in the opening and closing of the speech canal, to the larynx (voicebox)...

Additionally, H.erectus were meat-eaters who hunted, and hunting requires some amount of speech communication/coordination between the hunting party...

H.ergaster (1.9 million years BP/Before Present) were also omniverous, but could have just been scavengers who did not hunt, but it's presumed they had hyoid bones, or at least the final stages of the hominin hyoid bone were being naturally selected during this period (1.7-1.9 million years BP), as hominins were becoming fond of meat, which was also contributing to the increased size of their brain...

Answer 2

Homo Erectus Language

Answer 3

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RE:
Is there any evidence that Homo Erectus use a spoken language?
Hello. I was studying of Homo Erectus and I suddenly wondered if Homo Erectus really use a spoken language
like teacher said. I tried to search for the evidence in Internet
but I couldnt find it. Thats why I am asking of it now.
Is there any evidence that Homo Erectus use a spoken language? I...

Answer 4

Thank you for asking.

I take it for granted they had a spoken language to some degree because I can't think of any other primate past or present that were/are unable to make sounds which were/are used for communicating amongst their own species, therefore, I don't see why or how come Homo Erectus would be exempt? Since the vast majority of species of the animal kingdom has a form of communicative speech by way of making sounds I would expect Homo Erectus would be no different in this regards. Then again, with a name like "Homo" & "Erectus", and if they were homophobic then I can surely comprehend as a hetero where they might not have developed a spoken language for fear that saying “hi” to the next person could have been misinterpreted as a come-on, but not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just saying, I dunno so why do you ask?

Thank you for asking. Tsark out.

Answer 5

I appreciated Ed's answer. Of course a single gene is not responsible for speech in my opinion anyway. Homo erectus has a narrow canal for the spinal nerve that serves muscle function of the lungs and intercostals which is vital to our speech. Anthropologist use this to suggest that H. erectus couldn't speak. This is nonsense as far as I am concerned. It simply means that they didn't speak like we do. Their brain's did develop significantly and I think language and tool use may very well have been why. I read a book, Becoming Human, by Dr. Ian Tattersall. I was dumbfounded when I read that he believed language developed 50,000 years ago after the appearance of symbollic artifacts in the fossil record. Paleoanthropology is a subject that has numerous theories that are often made without good justification. There are too many that want to make a name for themselves by suggesting that their evidence points to the first speach, or the first tool, or the oldest ancestor, etc. and the media runs with the most outrageous of these theories. The Out of Africa theory, in my opinion, is a good example of this.

Also I would like to point out that H. erectus before a million years ago is significantly different than H. erectus after a million years ago.

Answer 6

They had the proper bone structure, and muscle placement. Their brains more or less overlapped with modern homo sapiens. So it's not a stretch to think they could speak. It doesn't actually take a massive brain to be able to speak. There are quite a few homo sapiens in the world with abnormally small brains, smaller than the erectus norm, and they can speak well enough.

Answer 7

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There is some archaeological evidence of spoken language in our ancestors as early as homo erectus. We can tell from the bones in their chest cavity and throat that they had the capacity to make a wide range of noises. This ability is unlikely to have evolved unless it was being used for speech because the same physical characteristics that allow us to speak also stop us from being able to eat and breathe at the same time without choking. Compared to other animals we choke really easy. This adaption would only be of benefit to the species if it afforded us an advantage worth the risk of choking all the time, like language. It is argued that the reason we walk on two legs is because our ancestors needed to free up our upper body for freer breathing to produce a wider range of sounds, but there is no evidence that one caused the other, only that they both came about together. At around the same time we lost our massive jaw strength suggesting that we were adapting to new ways of gathering food, like the kind of organized gathering, scavenging and hunting that spoken communication allowed us to achieve. Something as complex as spoken language takes a long time to evolve. Some species of monkeys have as many as 30 'alarm calls'. (e.g. a high pitch shreek signifying danger from above, a chirp for an approaching snake) What make human language differ from this is not just the amount of words, its grammar. Grammar allows us to rearrange and invent new words which can then be understood by other through context (e.g. if is say 'that white russian is terrible' with a strange looking drink in my hand, you should figure out that a white russian is a drink and add it to your lexicon). Noam Chompsky and others argue that this is an innate ability, present from birth. Every culture of homo sapien ever found has language with a form of grammar. There are even cases of groups of children issolated from adults inventing their own language complete with grammatical rules. This could not have evolved in a flash as we transited into homo sapian. It all points to our ancestors having, an albeit less advanced, complex language ability. Mesopatamians invented writing around the time of the agricultural revolution in the Iran/Iraq area.

Answer 8

There isn't conclusive evidence one way or the other.
Its likely that there was at least some form of oral communication; Lions, tigers & bears (oh my!) communicate through sounds they make.

For a spoken language in the way you might be thinking of it, one thing was essential. Sweat glands.

Sounds silly, but if you are panting to keep cool- its hard to have enough mouth time to try to develop a spoken language aside from grunts.

And I can't recall if sweat glands had developed in Homo Erectus, though I want to say they had.

Answer 9

Yes, today we can observe the pre-human species known as Homo Negroidicus. This species is very primitive showing mainly violent behavior because they are known to kill and steal from other species simply for the sake of doing so. However, they do display some degree of social functioning. While their writing may not be completely comprehensible they have developed a spoken language, Archaeologists and Anthropologists have given it the name Ebonics. For example, they may say the word "cake". Now to you and me this is a baked good. However, in the language of the Negroids, "cake" is a well endowed buttocks on a female. "Dime-piece" is another word they may use. What seems like a monetary reference to a coin that is worth 10 cents, is actually a particularly attractive female, most often one who has a "cake".

Answer 10

Well, it might just be all a matter of a couple of developments required for sounds made by animals.

The larynx must develop to allow a complex assortment of various sounds, our cousin s,the modern Ape, do not have such a laryngeal development.

Then the brain must develop in order to use the sound capability.

If some scientists are correct, and like all such informed speculation based upon accumulated knowledge, other scientists question the position, geographical changes in East Africa about 3 1/2 million years ago forced our hominid ancestors out of the disappearing trees and onto the ground and, two legs. This posture may have created a skull shape that allowed enhanced speech capabilities.

Did our ancestors, just-out-of-the-trees, have language? Certainly not. But, they may have been the first to delivered the necessary proto-changes to our physical make up to allow some sort of sound capability to eventually develop.

Language, in my view, almost certainly began with grunts, yelps and hand and arm movements.

Old erectus, there were various versions of the species over the time of about 2.6 million and as late as 400,000 years ago, made some important advances but language was probably not one of them!

I might point out that it's been said that there is a wide gulf of ability separating the speaking ability of ancient man and Shakespeare. This gulf, though very wide, is not so wide as that between President Bush and the average American. lol