There is a question that has puzzled paleoanthropologists for decades. Could Neanderthals produce and understand the equivalent of human speech? Were Neanderthals verbally and linguistically capable, just like their cousins Homo sapiens?
After many years of research, it seems this riddle may now have been solved. According to a team of multidisciplinary researchers affiliated with the University of Alcalá and Complutense University of Madrid in Spain and Binghamton University in New York, Neanderthal speech capabilities were considerable and based on all the necessary physical characteristics to speak and understand speech.
In the latest edition of Nature Ecology & Evolution , the scientists explain the results of their study, which used data they obtained from a fossil-based reconstruction of the Neanderthal auditory system. After careful analysis, they were able to confirm that Neanderthal speech did indeed have the physiological characteristics that would be required to produce and understand a full spectrum of sound combinations.
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