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Proto-consonants were information-dense via identical bioacoustic tags to proto-vowels
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Lameira, Adriano R., Vicente, Raquel, Alexandre, Antonio, Campbell-Smith, Gail, Knott, Cheryl, Wich, Serge and Hardus, Madeleine E. (2017) Proto-consonants were information-dense via identical bioacoustic tags to proto-vowels. Nature Human Behaviour, 1 . 0044 . doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0044
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0044
Abstract
Why did our ancestors combine the first consonant- A nd vowel-like utterances to produce the first syllable or word? To answer this question, it is essential to know what constituted the communicative function of proto-consonants and of proto-vowels before their combined use became universal. Almost nothing is known, however, about consonant-like calls in the primate order[1,2]. Here, we investigate a large collection of voiceless consonant-like calls in nonhuman great apes (our closest relatives), namely orangutans (Pongo spp.). We analysed 4,486 kiss-squeaks collected across 48 individuals in four wild populations. Despite idiosyncratic production mechanics, consonant-like calls displayed information-dense content and the same acoustic signatures found in voiced vowel-like calls by nonhuman primates, implying similar biological functions. Selection regimes between proto-consonants and proto-vowels were thus probably indistinguishable at the dawn of spoken language evolution. Our findings suggest that the first proto-syllables or proto-words in our lineage probably constituted message reiterations, instead of messages of increasing intricacy.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QL Zoology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Psychology | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Nature Human Behaviour | ||||||
| Publisher: | Springer Nature Group | ||||||
| ISSN: | 2397-3374 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 8 February 2017 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 1 | ||||||
| Article Number: | 0044 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41562-017-0044 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
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