Neanderthal man speaks after 30,000 years.

[madinmaryland]

(CNN) -- It's been 30,000 years since Neanderthals walked the earth but now we can hear what they sounded like, according to a Florida anthropologist.

Robert McCarthy of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton reconstructed Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate their voice with a computer synthesizer.

The result is a single syllable which sounds strange and unremarkable -- part croaking frog, part burping human. But McCarthy says that's because Neanderthals lacked the "quantal vowels" which modern humans use.

"They would have spoken a bit differently," McCarthy told the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in Ohio earlier this month. "They wouldn't have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language."

New Scientist magazine discussed McCarthy's findings and linked to his vocal simulation on its Web site. Listen to neanderthal man speak

McCarthy used 50,000-year-old fossils which came from France to make his reconstruction, New Scientist said. He plans to eventually simulate an entire Neanderthal sentence, the magazine reported.

To reconstruct the vocal tracts, McCarthy teamed with linguist Phil Lieberman, who worked in the 1970s to deduce the dimensions of a Neanderthal larynx based on its skull.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/16/neanderthal.sound/index.html

[quip]

1. So what HAS MrCoffee been up to these days?

:shrug:

[Cabcere]

3. Y'know, I just assumed that he was in his bunk, and the rest I didn't want to know...

:shrug: :P


Oh, and: :spank: :rofl:

:hug: MrCoffee!

[quip]

7. BAAAAAAH!!!!ELEVENS!!

I keed him, because I love him! :D

[underpants]

2. Is your sigline smilie some sort of alt-rock thing?

If so I can't see how that could possibly be good to dance to

Just saying

The Duke Spirit - The Step and The Walk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBK9P2AEBjA&feature=related

[Phoonzang]

4. HA HA...Neanderthals

can't pronounce the words sweet, meat, beat, or neat.

[deucemagnet]

5. Although capable of some speech, they prefer to communicate...

...by posting on Free Republic.

</mandatoryfreerepublicjoke> Please return to your normal activities.

[madinmaryland]

6. Hey!!! Stop insulting Neanderthals!!!1!! They'd never stoop to the

level of posting over there!!

[deucemagnet]

9. Oh, those Neanderthals know what happens when liberals control the government!

First they come for your spears, then they come for your crude stone tools.

[DarkTirade]

10. Hey, neanderthals actually had bigger brains than homo sapiens.

Of course, brain size doesn't have a direct correlation to intelligence... but still. It's possible that they may have been even a bit smarter than we were. :P

[hvn_nbr_2]

8. I thought this was going to be a presidential press conference thread. nt

[LiberalEsto]

11. So can they burp the alphabet?

Just askin'

[Parche]

12. That Looks Like Lieberman

:woohoo:

:hi:

[madinmaryland]

13. Stop insulting Neaderthals!

:grr:

[Robb]

14. "Ugg. Booga. Robb is a Dingbat."

/end caveman bit

[Initech]

15. I clicked on this thread expecting a picture of Bush!