Month: September 2022

OLD MYTH DEBUNKED. “The discovery of laryngeal lowering during vocalization in many mammals suggests that this is a primitive trait, already present long before humans diverged from chimpanzees.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

OTHER DRIVERS. “The further discovery of a permanently descended larynx in several nonhuman species, which evolved convergently with that in humans, indicated that factors other than speech might select for such reconfiguration, and provided testable hypotheses for what these factors might have been.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

RED HERRING. “In sum, these data illustrate the value of the comparative approach to speech evolution, and suggest that the reconfiguration of the human vocal tract has been overemphasized in recent discussions of language evolution.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

THE GENETIC FOSSILS. “Molecular genetics represents an area of great interest for understanding language evolution.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

ISOLATING DIFFERENT GENES. “Rapid progress in genetic sequencing technology has provided us with relatively exact determinations of the human, chimpanzee, rat, mouse and chicken genomes (along with many nonvertebrates); drafts of the macaque and dog genomes are nearing completion. These data allow us to isolate the small percentage of genes that differ between humans and other species.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

HUMAN VS PRIMATE GENES. “Because the fundamental capabilities underlying language appear to be identical among all populations of normal humans, we can exclude from consideration alleles that differ between human populations, thus isolating a candidate set of genes coding for the many biological differences between humans and chimpanzees.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

HOMINID UNIQUENESS. “In addition to language, these include brain size, erect bipedalism, sexual function, and many others. Although this set of genes forms a tiny percentage of the total human genome (around 1.5%), it equates to a bewildering 30 million base pairs of DNA that could play a role in the genetics of human uniqueness.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

DATA INSUFFICIENCY. “Because we have little detailed knowledge of what functions most of this DNA performs, we are still a long way away from isolating the genetic differences playing a crucial role in human language ability. Searching for language-related genes among the many candidates is still akin to searching for a needle in a haystack, and both intense research and good luck will be necessary for success in the short term.” https://lnkd.in/dTkGwcGB View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on the evolution of language. While most definitions of life do not include communication, I do, at all levels. Thus although human language has tremendous power and flexibility it is a great mistake to think that it is uniquely human. That said, the evolution of such a complex language in man is an extremely interesting problem. It is still evolving, but as quantum physics shows, we are fast approaching the place where words fail. View in LinkedIn

It is again the season for this specialized fungus that likes dog scat. View in LinkedIn