Boë, L.-J., Berthommier, F., Legou, T., Captier, G., Kemp, C., Sawallis, T.
R., … Fagot, J. (2017). Evidence of a Vocalic Proto-System in the Baboon
(Papio papio) Suggests Pre-Hominin Speech Precursors. PLOS ONE, 12(1),
e0169321.
Abstract
Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course
of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long
been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that
the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the
vowel systems universally found in human language. Examining the
vocalizations through acoustic analyses, tongue anatomy, and modeling of
acoustic potential, we found that baboons (Papio papio) produce sounds
sharing the F1/F2 formant structure of the human [ɨ æ ɑ ɔ u] vowels, and
that similarly with humans those vocalic qualities are organized as a
system on two acoustic-anatomic axes. This confirms that hominoids can
produce contrasting vowel qualities despite a high larynx. It suggests that
spoken languages evolved from ancient articulatory skills already present
in our last common ancestor with Cercopithecoidea, about 25 MYA.
