Human evolution; our complex speech mechanism (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, May 10, 2019, 12:02 (2022 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: The development of syntax has nothing to do with anatomy and phonemes, and there is no expert on earth who can verify that all the anatomic changes took place before early homos and early sapiens began the process of trying to form new sounds.

DAVID: I've said earlier homos used voice. Complex language requires the appearance of complex anatomic changes to perform enough phonemes to form a complex intelligible language.

All languages, including those of animals, birds and insects, are intelligible to those who use them. But yes of course complex new sounds require complex anatomic changes. The question is why, when and how the changes took place. (See below)

DAVID: As for experts read McCrone. The need for the previously enlarged brain is necessary for the language control areas to develop syntax among the aspects of organized language.

All the anatomical changes, including those in the brain, were necessary for the development of all aspects of language. Once again, the question is why, when and how the changes took place. (See below)

DAVID: You have not answered the point that H. sapiens arrived with all the required anatomical changes in place needed to produce human sounds for modern complex language which appears to have started 50,000+ years ago, 250.000 years after the first sapiens arrived. That is Mc Crone's view. Just when did your cell committees do their job?

Please tell me how McCrone knows when H. sapiens started to make the sounds needed for modern language. Did he happen to be around with his tape recorder?

Once again: I am not denying that the changed anatomy was necessary for the new sounds, but neither you nor I nor McCrone can possibly know what sounds were already being made when the anatomy reached its final form. (I propose that the final form, including that of the brain, was reached when pre-sapiens or possible early sapiens succeeded in making all the necessary changes.) As I pointed out yesterday, different modern languages have different sounds, and of course all of these are produced by the final anatomy. But the issue is what in the first place caused the changes that led to the final anatomy. Here are your choices: divine preprogramming, divine dabbling, random mutations, or cellular intelligence making changes IN RESPONSE to the need for new sounds (just like legs changing into flippers IN RESPONSE to the new environment). So please tell me which of these options McCrone favours.