Scientists recreate the lost languages of ancient humans

"To recreate the sounds of long-lost human species, Dr Vialet and her colleagues looked at the fossilised remains of ancient humans. What makes this so difficult is that it is the soft tissues, like the brain, the tongue, and the larynx, which have the biggest impact on speech ability. These tissues aren't preserved in the fossil record, but scientists can still see the 'imprints' left behind on the skeleton by long-vanished body parts."

"By the time the Neanderthals arrived around 50,000 years ago, our Homo sapien ancestors would have heard a language that they could understand and even engage with. Dr James Cole, an expert on the evolution of language from the University of Brighton, told the Daily Mail: 'There would have been certainly a commonality of understanding we must have been able to communicate.'"

Researchers have reconstructed the sounds and languages of extinct human species by examining fossilized remains and the skeletal imprints left by soft tissues. Early hominids like Australopithecus afarensis, which emerged 3.2 million years ago, communicated more like chimpanzees without structured grammar. By the time Neanderthals appeared 50,000 years ago, their language had evolved enough that Homo sapiens could understand and communicate with them. Dr Amélie Vialet and her team from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris led these reconstructions by analyzing the shape and position of ancient voice boxes, lungs, and tongues preserved as impressions in skulls and skeletons.

Read at Mail Online