If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to natter with a Neanderthal or have a heart-to-heart with Homo erectus, then wonder no more.
Scientists have used research to recreate the lost language of ancient human species.
These incredible simulations reveal what our distant relatives might have really sounded like, and how they might have communicated with one another.
And you might be surprised to hear just how familiar some of it sounds.
The most ancient hominin species, Australopithecus afarensis, emerged around 3.2 million years ago, well before complex language first appeared.
Instead of using sentences with structure and grammar, these early hominids would have sounded more like a chimpanzee than a modern person.
However, 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.’
Scientists have used fossil remains to create a simulation of what our ancient human relatives might have sounded like, revealing what it would have been like to speak with a Neanderthal
The reconstructions are the work of Dr Amélie Vialet, a paleoanthropologist from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, alongside a team of researchers working in collaboration with Radio France.
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.
This can reveal, for example, the shape and size of the larynx – or voice box -, the position of the lungs, or how the tongue might have been shaped and moved.
Impressions left behind in the skulls of ancient humans can even give a hint at the size and importance of certain parts of the brain.
Dr Vialet uses this information to create biomechanical models, which are mathematical representations of how our bodies function.
Combined with other archaeological evidence, Dr Vialet has been able to ‘cautiously imagine’ what these ancient species sounded like.
Scientists looked at the shape of the skull as well as the subtle marks left by soft tissues like the brain and tongue to work out what ancient human species would have sounded like
Neanderthals, technically known as Homo neanderthalensis, are one of our most recent human relatives and lived alongside Homo sapiens for several thousand years.
Archaeological evidence has shown that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals met and even interbred relatively frequently, which explains why many people today still have Neanderthal genes.
Due to the physiological differences between Neanderthals and modern humans, they still wouldn’t sound quite like us.
Professor Steven Mithen, an expert on early prehistory from the University of Reading, told the Daily Mail: ‘They would have sounded more nasal because of their large noses, could speak much louder and for longer periods without taking a breath because of their large chests and lung capacity.’
Professor Mithen’s research also suggests that they would have used louder and more pronounced plosive ‘p’, ‘t’, and ‘b’ sounds due to their larger lungs.
However, experts argue that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals would still have had some level of common understanding.
Professor Mithen says that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals would have been able to talk ‘just as we can communicate with people who speak other languages today by using gestures and facial expressions’.
He adds: ‘Also, they would have quickly acquired words of each other’s languages.’
Some scientists think that Home erectus (pictured) might have been the first human species to develop a spoken language
Likewise, as the sole intelligent inhabitants of a sparsely inhabited planet, Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and even the mysterious Denisovans might have recognised each other as someone worth talking to.
Dr Cole adds: ‘There’s clearly an element of difference, but I think there’s also an element of similarity.
‘It’s in that similarity that perhaps they found a commonality of the human spirit, rather than in the difference that we are so quick to look for today.’
While scientists are fairly certain the Neanderthals and Denisovans had some form of language, the emergence of the first spoken dialects can be traced back even further.
Homo erectus, which emerged around 1.6 million years ago, was the first of our ancient ancestors to stand up tall like a modern human, live on the ground, and start using tools.
Some paleoanthropologists now suggest that they may have also been the first hominids to develop a form of language.
A 12-year-old Homo erectus known as the Turkana Boy was found to have an imprint in his skull left by a brain region called Broca’s area, which is associated with language and tool making.
In fact, Dr Cole says that the presence of evidence of tool making is actually the key to understanding Homo erectus’ language skills.
These early humans were the first humans to create hand axes, the first tool that was specifically shaped by humans for a specific use.
‘To do that, we have to be able to translate an image in our minds into the object,’ says Dr Cole.
‘And that is a key indicator for abstract thought which is what you need for language and grammatical speech.’
The Turkana Boy’s language would not have been complicated, perhaps only using simple words to stand in for objects or events out in the world.
However, that could have been enough to allow Homo erectus to hunt, plan, explore, and, eventually, become the first human species to leave Africa.
A close relative of modern humans, Neanderthals went extinct 40,000 years ago
The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 40,000 years ago.
The species lived in Africa with early humans for millennia before moving across to Europe around 300,000 years ago.
They were later joined by humans, who entered Eurasia around 48,000 years ago.
The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a direct ancestor – the two species split from a common ancestor – that perished around 50,000 years ago. Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit
These were the original ‘cavemen’, historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.
In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we’ve been selling Neanderthals short.
A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of ‘caveman’ than anyone thought possible.
It now seems likely that Neanderthals had told, buried their dead, painted and even interbred with humans.
They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.
They are thought to have hunted on land and done some fishing. However, they went extinct around 40,000 years ago following the success of Homo sapiens in Europe.
