Editing Origin of language (section)

=== Archaic ''Homo sapiens'' ===
{{redirect|Hmmmmm|Humming|Humming (disambiguation)}}
{{Further|Archaic humans}}
[[Steven Mithen]] proposed the term ''Hmmmmm'' for the pre-linguistic system of communication posited to have been used by archaic ''[[Homo]]'', beginning with ''[[Homo ergaster]]'' and reaching the highest sophistication in the [[Middle Pleistocene]] with ''[[Homo heidelbergensis]]'' and ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]''. ''Hmmmmm'' is an acronym for ''h''olistic (non-compositional), ''m''anipulative (utterances are commands or suggestions, not descriptive statements), ''m''ulti-''m''odal (acoustic as well as gestural and facial), [[origin of music|''m''usical]], and ''m''imetic.<ref name="Mithen2006">{{Cite book |last=Mithen |first=Steven J. |title=The singing neanderthals: the origins of music, language, mind, and body |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-674-02192-1 |location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref>

==== ''Homo erectus'' ====
Evidence for ''[[Homo erectus]]'' potentially using language comes in the form of [[Acheulean]] tool usage. The use of abstract thought in the formation of Acheulean hand axes coincides with the symbol creation necessary for simple language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barham |first1=Lawrence |last2=Everett |first2=Daniel |date=1 June 2021 |title=Semiotics and the Origin of Language in the Lower Palaeolithic |journal=Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=535–579 |doi=10.1007/s10816-020-09480-9 |issn=1573-7764 |s2cid=225509049 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Recent language theories present [[recursion]] as the unique facet of human language and theory of mind.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vicari |first1=Giuseppe |last2=Adenzato |first2=Mauro |date=May 2014 |title=Is recursion language-specific? Evidence of recursive mechanisms in the structure of intentional action |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1053810014000555 |journal=Consciousness and Cognition |volume=26 |pages=169–188 |doi=10.1016/j.concog.2014.03.010 |pmid=24762973 |s2cid=206955548 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2318/154505}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corballis |first=Michael |date=2007 |title=The Uniqueness of Human Recursive Thinking |url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-uniqueness-of-human-recursive-thinking |journal=American Scientist |volume=95 |issue=3 |page=240 |doi=10.1511/2007.65.240 |issn=0003-0996}}</ref> However, breaking down language into its symbolic parts: separating meaning from the requirements of grammar, it becomes possible to see that language does not depend on either recursion or grammar. This can be evidenced by the [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] language users in Brazil that have no myth or creation stories, no numbers and no colors within their language.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Everett |first=Daniel L. |date=August 2005 |title=Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=621–646 |doi=10.1086/431525 |issn=0011-3204 |s2cid=2223235 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2066/41103}}</ref> This is to highlight that even though grammar may have been unavailable, use of foresight, planning and symbolic thought can be evidence of language as early as one million years ago with Homo ''erectus''.

==== ''Homo heidelbergensis'' ====
{{See also|Homo_heidelbergensis#Language|l1=Homo heidelbergensis: Language}}
''Homo heidelbergensis'' was a close relative (most probably a migratory descendant) of ''[[Homo ergaster]]''. Some researchers believe this species to be the first hominin to make controlled vocalisations, possibly mimicking animal vocalisations,<ref name="Mithen2006" /> and that as ''Homo heidelbergensis'' developed more sophisticated culture, proceeded from this point and possibly developed an early form of symbolic language.

==== ''Homo neanderthalensis'' ====
{{See also|Neanderthal_behavior#Language|l1=Neanderthal behavior: Language}}
The discovery in 1989 of the (Neanderthal) Kebara 2 hyoid bone suggests that Neanderthals may have been anatomically capable of producing sounds similar to modern humans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Arensburg |first1=B. |last2=Schepartz |first2=L. A. |last3=Tillier |first3=A. M. |last4=Vandermeersch |first4=B. |last5=Rak |first5=Y. |date=October 1990 |title=A reappraisal of the anatomical basis for speech in Middle Palaeolithic hominids |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=137–146 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330830202 |pmid=2248373}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=D'Anastasio |first1=R. |last2=Wroe |first2=S. |last3=Tuniz |first3=C. |last4=Mancini |first4=L. |last5=Cesana |first5=D. T. |last6=Dreossi |first6=D. |last7=Ravichandiran |first7=M. |last8=Attard |first8=M. |last9=Parr |first9=W. C. |last10=Agur |first10=Anne |last11=Capasso |first11=Luigi |display-authors=8 |year=2013 |title=Micro-biomechanics of the kebara 2 hyoid and its implications for speech in neanderthals |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=12 |pages=e82261 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...882261D |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0082261 |pmc=3867335 |pmid=24367509 |doi-access=free}}</ref> The [[hypoglossal nerve]], which passes through the hypoglossal canal, controls the movements of the tongue, which may have enabled voicing for size exaggeration (see size exaggeration hypothesis below) or may reflect speech abilities.<ref name="Arensburg1989" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jungers |first1=W. L. |last2=Pokempner |first2=A. A. |last3=Kay |first3=R. F. |last4=Cartmill |first4=M. |date=August 2003 |title=Hypoglossal canal size in living hominoids and the evolution of human speech. |url=http://www.baa.duke.edu/kay/site/riogallegos/PDFs/j74.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Human Biology |volume=75 |issue=4 |pages=473–484 |doi=10.1353/hub.2003.0057 |pmid=14655872 |s2cid=30777048 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612035730/http://www.baa.duke.edu/kay/site/riogallegos/PDFs/j74.pdf |archive-date=12 June 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=DeGusta |first1=D. |last2=Gilbert |first2=W. H. |last3=Turner |first3=S. P. |date=February 1999 |title=Hypoglossal canal size and hominid speech |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=96 |issue=4 |pages=1800–1804 |bibcode=1999PNAS...96.1800D |doi=10.1073/pnas.96.4.1800 |pmc=15600 |pmid=9990105 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Johansson |first=Sverker |title=Evolution of Language: Sixth International Conference, Rome |date=April 2006 |isbn=9789812566560 |pages=152–159 |chapter=Constraining the Time when Language Evolved |doi=10.1142/9789812774262_0020 |access-date=10 September 2007 |chapter-url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-13687 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015133922/http://www.tech.plymouth.ac.uk/socce/evolang6/johansson_constraining.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Houghton |first=P. |date=February 1993 |title=Neandertal supralaryngeal vocal tract |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=139–146 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330900202 |pmid=8430750}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boë |first1=Louis-Jean |last2=Maeda |first2=Shinji |last3=Heim |first3=Jean-Louis |year=1999 |title=Neandertal man was not morphologically handicapped for speech |journal=Evolution of Communication |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=49–77 |doi=10.1075/eoc.3.1.05boe}}</ref>

However, although Neanderthals may have been anatomically able to speak, [[Richard G. Klein]] in 2004 doubted that they possessed a fully modern language. He largely bases his doubts on the fossil record of archaic humans and their stone tool kit. Bart de Boer in 2017 acknowledges this ambiguity of a universally accepted Neanderthal vocal tract; however, he notes the similarities in the thoracic vertebral canal, potential air sacs, and hyoid bones between modern humans and Neanderthals to suggest the presence of complex speech.<ref>de Boer, Bart (2017). "Evolution of speech and evolution of language". ''Psychonomic Bulletin & Review''. '''24''' (1): 158–162. [[Digital object identifier|doi]]:10.3758/s13423-016-1130-6. [[International Standard Serial Number|ISSN]]&nbsp;1069-9384.</ref> For two million years following the emergence of ''Homo habilis'', the stone tool technology of hominins changed very little. Klein, who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the crude stone tool kit of archaic humans as impossible to break down into categories based on their function, and reports that Neanderthals seem to have had little concern for the final aesthetic form of their tools. Klein argues that the Neanderthal brain may have not reached the level of complexity required for modern speech, even if the physical apparatus for speech production was well-developed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Klarreich |first=E. |year=2004 |title=Biography of Richard G. Klein |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=101 |issue=16 |pages=5705–5707 |bibcode=2004PNAS..101.5705K |doi=10.1073/pnas.0402190101 |pmc=395972 |pmid=15079069 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Klein, Richard G. |title=Three Distinct Human Populations |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/BF/bf02/klein/bf02e3.html |access-date=10 September 2007 |website=Biological and Behavioral Origins of Modern Humans |publisher=Access Excellence @ The National Health Museum}}</ref> The issue of the Neanderthal's level of cultural and technological sophistication remains a controversial one.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Based on computer simulations used to evaluate that evolution of language that resulted in showing three stages in the evolution of syntax, Neanderthals are thought to have been in stage 2, showing they had something more evolved than proto-language but not quite as complex as the language of modern humans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marwick |first=Ben |year=2003 |title=Pleistocene Exchange Networks as Evidence for the Evolution of Language |journal=Cambridge Archaeological Journal |volume=13 |pages=67–81 |doi=10.1017/S0959774303000040 |s2cid=15514627 |hdl-access=free |hdl=1885/42089}}</ref>

Some researchers, applying auditory bioengineering models to computerised tomography scans of Neanderthal skulls, have asserted that Neanderthals had auditory capacity very similar to that of anatomically modern humans.<ref name="Conde-Valverde2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Conde-Valverde |first1=Mercedes |last2=Martínez |first2=Ignacio |last3=Quam |first3=Rolf M. |last4=Rosa |first4=Manuel |last5=Velez |first5=Alex D. |last6=Lorenzo |first6=Carlos |last7=Jarabo |first7=Pilar |last8=Bermúdez de Castro |first8=José María |last9=Carbonell |first9=Eudald |last10=Arsuaga |first10=Juan Luis |date=1 March 2021 |title=Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had similar auditory and speech capacities |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01391-6 |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=609–615 |bibcode=2021NatEE...5..609C |doi=10.1038/s41559-021-01391-6 |issn=2397-334X |pmid=33649543 |s2cid=232090739}}</ref> These researchers claim that this finding implies that "Neanderthals evolved the auditory capacities to support a vocal communication system as efficient as modern human speech."<ref name="Conde-Valverde2021" />