Mark Pagel weighs up a study claiming that the origins of human language are rooted in gesture.
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Pagel, M. Language: Points, grunts and speaks. Nature 543, 620–621 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/543620a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/543620a
Marc Verhaegen
Thanks for this review. Corballis' book mentions a few times the possible importance of our semi-aquatic past for speech evolution.
All evidence suggests that early-Pleistocene archaic Homo dispersed intercontinentally, not running over hot open plains where water and salt (sweat) are scarce, but simply following the African and Eurasian coasts and from there the rivers inland (Coastal Dispersal Model, Munro 2010). This helps explain in archaic Homo the brain enlargement (aquatic foods are rich in brain-specific nutrients: DHA, iodine, taurine, oligo-elements etc., Cunnane 2005), the improvement in stone tool manufacture (also for opening shellfish), the appearance of thick and dense skeletons (pachyosteosclerosis is typical of littoral animals, Verhaegen 2013), external noses, long and flat skulls, broad bodies and pelvises, etc., as well as our well-developed breathing-control, which is required for (parttime) diving for shellfish or seaweed, but also for voluntary speech production. Most aquatic foods have to be sucked and swallowed rather than bitten and chewed, so we can close our oral cavity at our lips, teeth, palate and throat, allowing to pronounce labial, dental, velar etc. consonants (Vaneechoutte 2011).
Possibly, this semi-aquatic model might even support Corballis' gestural hypothesis. When our ancestors stopped diving (e.g. late-Pleistocene gracile skulls of Homo sapiens lost pachyosteosclerosis) and waded and walked more frequently, this completely "freed" not only the hands for gestures, but also the mouth and airways for voluntary speech.
For references, please google "so-called aquatic ape hypothesis unproven assumptions".