Human evolution; Erectus speach (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, March 01, 2018, 01:48 (2460 days ago) @ dhw

Most probably they had some rudimentary language:

https://aeon.co/essays/tools-and-voyages-suggest-that-homo-erectus-invented-language?ut...

"Evidence that erectus had language comes from their settlements, their art, their symbols, their sailing ability and their tools. Erectus settlements are found throughout most of the old world. And, most importantly for the idea that erectus had language, open oceans were not barriers to their travel.

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"Erectus settlements show evidence of culture – values, knowledge structures and social structure. This evidence is important because all these elements enhance each other. Evidence from the erectus settlement studied at Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, for example, suggests not only that erectus controlled fire but that their settlements were planned. One area was used for plant-food processing, another for animal-material processing, and yet another for communal life. Erectus, incredibly, also made sea craft. Sea travel is the only way to explain the island settlements of Wallacea (Indonesia), Crete and, in the Arabian Sea, Socotra. None of these were accessible to erectus except by crossing open ocean, then and now. These island cultural sites demonstrate that erectus was capable of constructing seaworthy crafts capable of carrying 20 people or more. According to most archaeologists, 20 individuals would have been the minimum required to found the settlements discovered.

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"To build and operate boats, erectus needed to talk about what material to collect, where to collect it, how to put the material together and so on – just what we ourselves would need to talk about in order to build a raft. In addition to the assembly of a raft, the planning for the trip as a whole, the reasoning for the undertaking, would have all required language.
We can therefore conclude that erectus required language. But how difficult would it have been for them to invent language, even with their massive Homo brains? Well, this depends on what is meant by language. There are two fundamental components to language that all linguists agree upon – grammar and symbols. Although some linguists take grammar to be the most important component of human language, others take symbols to be more important. As seen below, though, once symbols appear in language, grammar comes along nearly for free. To understand the nature of the erectus invention of language, it is first important to recognise the distinction between communication and language:

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"In my book How Language Began (2017), I make the case that erectus symbols began with their tools. In addition to the quartzite hand-axe ‘Excalibur’ used in a burial rite some 350,000 years ago in modern-day Atapuerca in Spain, all erectus tools, like all sapiens tools, became symbols of labour, community and culture. The creation, care, transport and skilled use of tools all demonstrate that these tools meant something more than simply the task they were designed to perform. Just as a shovel represents not only the task of digging, but also evokes memories of killing snakes, preparing a camp site and so on, the tools of erectus had many functions and would have elicited memories of cultural values and activities when they were not present.

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"Erectus had relative shortcomings of course, beyond possibly lacking the range of sounds of modern humans. It also lacked the modern form of the important FOXP2 gene that sapiens have. Do the shortcomings of vocal apparatus and primitive genes pose a problem for the idea that erectus had language? Not at all. For example, the evolution of speech was triggered by language – as we developed languages, the modes of expressing them improved over time. Yes, sapiens speech is likely better than erectus speech. But this doesn’t mean that erectus lacked speech. Any mammal could have speech with the sounds they are capable of producing today. They just need the right kind of brain. The sapiens version of FOXP2 helps us to articulate sounds more easily and to think more quickly and efficiently than erectus. But it is not a ‘language gene’. And though erectus might have had, as it were, the ‘Model T’ version of this gene while we possess the ‘Tesla version’, their ‘primitive’ FOXP2 would not have deprived them of language. FOXP2 and other genes adapted partially due to evolutionary pressure from language and culture."

Comment: McCrone's book, The Ape that Spoke, agrees that Erectus could have had a slow speech, a few words a minute. And I would assume they used lots of sign language. A very long fascinating essay.