Grunt Work: Scientists Re-Create Neanderthal Speech

April 16, 2008 -- (Discovery News)
"After a nearly 30,000-year silence, Neanderthals are speaking once more, thanks to researchers who have modelled the hominids' larynx to replicate the possible sounds they would have made, scientists say.
The work, led by Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, is based on Neanderthal fossils found in France..."

(http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/04/16/neanderthal-language.html)

Amber says: Speech is an amazing thing. Some would believe it is what sets us apart from the creatures we share this Earth with (as well as our early anscestors)... But the way I see it- everything speaks. It may not be with words, or even with sounds. To me, speaking doesn't always mean "Hi, how are you doing today? Very well, thanks.". Animals chatter, birds squak (sometimes annoyingly outside my bedroom window as I try to snatch another 15 minutes sleep...) Even facial expressions and gestures can say as much as a shout.

This article is fastinating. I regularly say "Wow, I want to do THAT for a job!!". Well, this is one of those times. To be able to re-create the noises that were made, replacing our current communication... well, it is like time- traveling, super-sleuthing, and history- discovering... all in one job.

It's hard enough for me to try to learn a new language. I couldn't imagine trying to decipher what these ancestors of ours would have been saying...