The Origin of Speech and the First Poets

by Carol A Westbrook Who can remember back to the first poets, The greatest ones,...so lofty and disdainful of renown They left us not a name to know them by -Howard Nemerov, The Makers In this poem, Howard Nemerov, Poet Laureate from 1988-1990, reminds us that we have no idea when poetry-that is speech-began. The origin of speech is lost in the depths of prehistory, but archaeologists are working hard to get a better understanding of how speech began, because it is one of the few things that makes us unique as human beings. Social animals communicate in order to coordinate activities, share resources, and improve their chance of survival. There are many examples of animals communicatio: bees, for example, do an elaborate dance to tell others where they found food; whales and elephants also exchange information and coordinate activities. But humans are the only animals that communicate by speech. At one time it was thought that closely related animals like the great apes, chimps and bonobos would be capable of speech if only they were raised like human babies. There were several attempts to do this by raising young chimps in human families and monitoring their acquisition of language. But while these chimps learned to understand some human speech, they fell far behind their human brothers and sisters in vocalizing more than a word or two. They never learned to speak properly more than a few words, and it soon became apparent that these apes must have been lacking certain anatomic features that were present only in humans. Scientists have a fairly comprehensive understanding of the evolution of the human species, supported by the fossil record and DNA studies. As seen on the picture on the right, our likely earliest ancestor is called Australopithecus , and is thought to have existed about 3.4 million years ago (mya).. The term Hominid (Family Hominidae ) includes all great apes including humans (orangutans, gorillas, chimps, bonobos, and us) while hominim (Tribe Hominim) is a narrow group within hominids, referring specifically to modern humans, our extinct ancestors, and all species more closely related to us than the chimpanzees, after our evolutionary split from chimpanzees. After Australopithecus came homo habilis , the maker, who made and used stone tools. Next came homo erectus , who used fire; then came Neanderthal and Homo sapiens , two species who evolved from a common ancestor. At what point did speech arise? At some point, the anatomy of some apes changed so that these pre-humans acquired the ability to make speech sounds, whereas the other apes did not. The change occurred in apes that left the trees and walked on flat land. The change was very subtle-it involved a small bone called ‘the hyoid’. This is a horseshoe-shaped bone about 3 inches in length that is located below the tongue and above the larynx (the voice box), as shown in the picture on the left. You can feel this bone in your neck when you swallow This is...

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