A recent study on the origin of human language is revolutionizing existing theories on the subject.
How did humans learned to speak? This question has fascinated the scientific community for many years. For the moment, no theory is consensus in the environment. It is indeed very difficult to go back to the origins of language. If modern man has long been considered the first holder of this capacity, arguments in favor of a more distant appearance have emerged over time.
And for good reason: modern homo sapiens have a single vocal apparatus and neural circuits dedicated to the production and understanding of language. But some researchers argue that the use of speech among Neanderthals, which appeared 250,000 years ago, is also possible. “They would have had the ability to pronounce the vowels ‘a’, ‘i’ and ‘or’, which amounts to saying that they could have pronounced as many vowels as we The National Museum of Natural History.
But modern man and his Neanderthal ancestor mainly share a variant of FoxP2, considered as the gene of speech. On the other hand, no one knows why Homo sapiens are the only ones to have developed complex and diverse languages. Until a recent study.
These scientists conducted research on the essential role of the FoxP2 protein. Nova1, one of the genes it controls, is associated with a deep oral expression disorder when it is transferred to certain families. To understand the influence of this mutation, the team introduced a human variant of the Nova1 protein in mice. Result: “The calls of newborns with their mother and adult male mice with female mice had changed in tone and complexity,” explains Yoko Tajima, one of the authors of the study.
But do these observations prove that the FoxP2 gene is at the origin of the appearance of speech in humans? Not really. This protein is actually the same in all mammals. Despite everything, this molecule has caused two changes in humans, a sign of an accelerated evolution of the species. This direct link between FOXP2 and vocal communication therefore opens the way to the hypothesis that the Nova1 was able to play a key role in the evolution of human language. Especially since the emergence of the first modern Homo sapiens in Africa – there are about 250,000 to 300,000 years – coincides with its appearance.