When We First Talked

Рет қаралды 3,236,275

3 жыл бұрын

Check out our podcast Eons: Mysteries of Deep Time: ow.ly/2J4450Iu69U
The evolution of our ability to speak is its own epic saga and it’s worth pausing to appreciate that. It’s taken several million years to get to this moment where we can tell you about how it took several million years for us to get here.
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to to.pbs.org/DonateEons
Thanks to these illustrators for their wonderful illustrations featured throughout this episode!
Julio Lacerda: / juliotheartist
Fabrizio de Rossi: / artoffabricious
Franz Anthony: franzanth.com/
Jack Byrley: / bedupolker
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Mark Talbott-Williams, Elizabeth Baker, Jake Myers, BuddyTheOtter, The Dec of Cards, Eddy, Andrii Makukha, Angel Alchin, Julie Cohen, salsablog.band, Michael Hof, simon read, Sean C. Kennedy, Eric Roberto Rodriguez, Hillary Ryde-Collins, Facts Dinosaurs, Frida, YaBoiSam36, Matthew Donnelly, Yu Mei, Colleen Troussel, Dan Ritter, faxo, Jayme Coyle, Gary Walker, Amanda Straw, Stephanie Tan, Laura Sanborn, Minyuan Li, Ben Cooper, Leonid, Robert Noah, Matt Parker, Heathe Kyle Yeakley, Jerrit Erickson, Anton Bryl, MissyElliottSmith, Zachary Spencer, Stefan Weber, Andrey, Ilya Murashov, Merri Snaidman, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, Anthony Callaghan, Philip Slingerland, John Vanek, Eric Vonk, Henrik Peteri, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Daisuke Goto, Gregory Kintz, Chandler Bass, Tsee Lee, Robert Hill
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References: docs.google.com/document/d/1D...

Пікірлер: 4 000

@nicks1451 3 жыл бұрын

I would love to know how humans evolved a love for music

@Cora.T 3 жыл бұрын

I believe scishow psych did a video about that :)

@BeatlesBowieKrimson 3 жыл бұрын

I evolved to love music when I heard The Beatles.

@thebigpicture2032 3 жыл бұрын

Followed with why individuals like a certain type of music and not others.

@yungjmp 3 жыл бұрын

I bet before we talked

@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 3 жыл бұрын

There's a vidoe when Attenborough and Björk were talking about that issue, and many interesting conclusions came up.

@CaptainShenanigans42 3 жыл бұрын

"Unga bunga" "Greg, for the last time, no one wants to buy your essential oils"

@s.f.4553 3 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣🤣

@shrek8339 3 жыл бұрын

I love this

@_justice570 3 жыл бұрын

Chug: Ooga uhn booga Jhho: unga bunga gooa boo? Chug: gunga boo💀💀

@fredriks5090 3 жыл бұрын

My real comment won't submit. KZfaq censors people from speaking to eachother. Boycott youtube overlords.

@andreyleonel255 3 жыл бұрын

"Unga Bunga" "Greg, please, I've already told you that's a very offensive joke"

@TERRENCEJJR 2 жыл бұрын

First words ever spoken. "We've been trying to reach you about your car's warranty."

@THEREALGATES 3 ай бұрын

😐

@yamil.343 28 күн бұрын

😂😂

@sofiab2920 19 күн бұрын

🙄

@robertgoss4842 2 жыл бұрын

Eons is a superb program. It's this kind of television that shows clearly how good TV can be. Thanks a million for a job well done.

@venator-classstardestroyer568 3 жыл бұрын

First human to ever talk: "We now live in a society."

@user-wx8ic2iv3d 3 жыл бұрын

The second human to talk: "Stfu Dave."

@geefreck 3 жыл бұрын

“A what?”

@i2eptilian 3 жыл бұрын

The second human to ever talk: "Gamers rise up."

@ElijahWalkerRowan 3 жыл бұрын

And the last human said “sHeEeEeSh!”

@normalguy6283 3 жыл бұрын

Last human to ever talk: Return to monkee

@adude8424 3 жыл бұрын

The two first human met, and their first word are: -"Hey Ron" -"Hey Billy"

@sumowww 3 жыл бұрын

“That hurt”

@cosmic1861 3 жыл бұрын

Ah yes an inside joke

@MorrFord 2 жыл бұрын

the classic

@farmeraxolotlgaming6953 2 жыл бұрын

those are (kind of) modern name lol

@i4ykl979 2 жыл бұрын

@@farmeraxolotlgaming6953 don’t be that person 😔

@Lincoln257 Жыл бұрын

I want to see the first human to ever see a wild horse and attempt to ride it.

@parallaxladder256 Жыл бұрын

I wanna see the first person to drink milk from a cow... What exactly were they trying to do, exactly? 🤨

@knowledgedesk1653 Жыл бұрын

Humans domesticated donkeys earlier

@SoupyMittens Жыл бұрын

@@parallaxladder256 they were desperate ok

@geefreck 3 жыл бұрын

Some random day a long time ago "hey" "hey"

@wesleyhempoli5548 3 жыл бұрын

that was after middle english

@epauletshark3793 3 жыл бұрын

It still stands

@achka 3 жыл бұрын

"Sseth here"

@patar6788 3 жыл бұрын

“Oooga” “Booga”

@martijn9568 3 жыл бұрын

No, they said erectus or rogan.

@thelegalsystem 3 жыл бұрын

Fun Fact: North American River Otters have distinct speech patterns as well! They even have a distinctive "chuckle" that they use to, as one biologist described, "send good vibes" out to their romp.

@andyjay729 3 жыл бұрын

Parrots name their children. There are some articles you can google; for some reason YT isn't letting me add links ATM.

@lartul 3 жыл бұрын

Hopefully down the line, one of those species will evolve real language. I hope i’ll live to see it.

@andyjay729 3 жыл бұрын

@@lartul Well, it probably took a million or so years for us to evolve real language, so bear that in mind.

@paulawolanski3237 3 жыл бұрын

Dolphins also have a language.

@Nikki0417 3 жыл бұрын

More ways otters are freaking adorable.

@Leto85 3 жыл бұрын

I'm also interested in how other animals speak. Dolphins seem to have a word for seaweed (several actually) and it took scientists years to figure that out.

@juliettebobcat704 Жыл бұрын

Of course they would have multiple words for seaweed! But it's cool they were able to figure that out.

@Leto85 Жыл бұрын

@@juliettebobcat704 Yeah, like inuit people have that for snow. It's whatever is a big part of your life.

@holdensanders2858 2 жыл бұрын

Love this. I am a researcher in audiology and am going to share this with my colleagues

@robinhahnsopran 3 жыл бұрын

Hi! I'm an opera singer, and thinking about how humans produce sound is an essential part of my job. The history of the evolution of speech is so rarely discussed, and it's SO cool - thank you for sharing!

@LadyhawksLairDotCom 3 жыл бұрын

This is SO off-topic, but can you recommend an online voice teacher? COVID has destroyed my musical outlets. I'm not sure when I'll be ready for lessons, but it will happen at some point.

@gyozakeynsianism 3 жыл бұрын

Cool!

@EyeLean5280 3 жыл бұрын

@@LadyhawksLairDotCom What level are you at? I can possibly connect you with somebody who can do lessons over Zoom.

@firelunamoon 3 жыл бұрын

@Robin opera singers are incredible. Both a musician and musical instrument at the same time.

@EyeLean5280 3 жыл бұрын

@@firelunamoon Well said!

@mattkuhn6634 3 жыл бұрын

As a linguist, this is one of the great mysteries. For instance, we can get a ballpark for when the various features required for speech production and understanding emerged, but did they converge on their own, or did they drive each other? Could Neanderthals speak? They're so much like us it's hard to imagine they didn't, but we don't know. Plus, how did language itself evolve? Some have argued that the first language was actually gestural, more like signed languages than spoken ones. Who knows! But if I ever got a time machine, this would definitely be up there in my list of things to investigate. Great episode!

@UltrEgoVegeta 3 жыл бұрын

Neanderthals have the fox p 2 gene just like us and thier hyoid bone is like ours to. In conclusion yes based on these facts i believe the could speak

@hamstsorkxxor 3 жыл бұрын

Neanderthals actually were "us", homo sapiens and Neanderthals had fertile offspring together. That means we are/were the same species. There are some differences between modern humans and a neanderthals, so it might be proper to say that they were another human race. This is unlike today, were only one human race exists, ie. homo sapiens sapiens.

@johannesschutz780 3 жыл бұрын

@@UltrEgoVegeta None of those are actual evidence for wether or not the Neanderthals could speak or not. Actually nothing that was mentioned in the video is conclusive evidence, because a hominine might have all those features but he still might not be capable of using those resources to form language. It all comes down to the computational power of their brains. We use sounds to build signs in the structural sense. Those signs have a meaning that is the same no matter where, when, in what context and by whom they are being used. If I understand this correctly, dolphins have names for each other, that is basically the same thing. Theoretically it could be possible that dolphins already have the capability of understanding the world around them and identifying objects, patterns and concepts, which they associate with certain sound patterns and form signs. If they would then freely combine those signs to communicate meaning that exhaustively describes their subjective experience of reality, dolphins would have a language, and they would need none of the features which are believed to be relevant for human speech. That's why I also believe that the Neanderthals could speak, but I don't think we can prove it.

@mattkuhn6634 3 жыл бұрын

@@existenceisillusion6528 It's not unreasonable, but it's pure assumption, and still leaves many questions unanswered. Furthermore, there's no evidence since recorded history began of increasing complexity in behavior leading to complexity in language. In fact, it's quite the opposite - all languages, regardless of the relative complexity of the societies that speak them, are equally expressive.

@mattkuhn6634 3 жыл бұрын

@@johannesschutz780 Precisely. Language is WAY more complex than a single gene, and the change to the hyoid bone is necessary but not sufficient for language. Furthermore, speciation is a lot more complicated than just "can they sustainably interbreed," but that's honestly totally irrelevant unless you can demonstrate that they diverged from us after we already had speech, and if you could do that we wouldn't be here discussing when humans first had speech.

@ammattt Жыл бұрын

It would be interesting to hear a segway video explaining parrots and other birds that repeat human words. I've also seen dogs and cats try hard to imitate human speech.

@ammattt Жыл бұрын

In fact, swap the 18th and last word; that's what i get for hurrying.

@chanshengsupremacy8889 11 ай бұрын

You just made me count the first 18 words

@tiskfendu 6 ай бұрын

HEY! I love you. @@chanshengsupremacy8889

@davidhallett8783 6 ай бұрын

Animals imitate sounds they frequently hear not human words. Politicians and religious figures repeat human words to imitate human speech

@Devlinator61116 5 ай бұрын

Animals riding segways would be an interesting video indeed.

@johnjunge6989 2 жыл бұрын

Love the variety of episodes, stuff I've never even considered questioning.

@thunderflare59 3 жыл бұрын

Now do a video on why my cats don't understand the word "no".

@hannahpostance4191 3 жыл бұрын

They do understand but they don't care about what you say 😂

@Never_heart 3 жыл бұрын

They were once seen as gods by humans, and they have not forgotten and neither will they let us forget

@mavrosyvannah 3 жыл бұрын

Oh she does. And still she ignores you.

@markwelschmeyer2426 3 жыл бұрын

cats can hear almost any vocal sound a human can make but they only pay attention to the higher pitch range.

@Navigator87110 3 жыл бұрын

I just decided to name each of my cats "No! Stop that! What is wrong with you? How many times do we have to have this discussion?! No treats for you!"

@beneficentnature9356 Жыл бұрын

I'm always fascinated at our ability to condense decades of research into a comprehensible 10 minute video. Well done.

@talideon 3 жыл бұрын

Another fun part of this is that the sound /f/ and /v/, the labiodentals, are _very_ recent innovations. To make them, you need a slight overbite, which is a relatively recent anatomical change in humans thought to have happened with the onset of agriculture.

@Great_Olaf5 3 жыл бұрын

Worth noting, that anatomical change isn't so much evolutionary as diet based. Our jaws are somewhat plastic in our youth, and the size and robustness of our lower jaw in particular is highly dependent on what kinds of food we eat as children, which is why our mouths are getting too small for the number of teeth were supposed to need. Also, if you lack that overbite, it's somewhat easier to make the bilabial (approximanta or fricatives) equivalents of those sounds, which many languages have instead of the labiodentals.

@Amanda-C. 3 жыл бұрын

Neat! Reference? Not wanting to do a hard review of the literature, but I'd take a passing interest in a light reading list, as a casual language nerd.

@Great_Olaf5 3 жыл бұрын

@@Amanda-C. As for the jaw part, there was a scishow video on it at some point, which likely has more references. As for the other part... Part of its intuition, which I understand isn't always reliable, and just of it is having a cousin with no overbite, not even the slight one, and a lot of the time his labiodental fricatives come out more like bilabial approximants. I do also know from a linguistic typology class that it's unusual for a language to have both labiodental sounds and bilabial approximants.

@nathanielsobchak991 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting. Don't know who you are, but it sounds like you know ur stuff

@belstar1128 3 жыл бұрын

That explains why some modern languages don't have these sounds.

@michaellopez4746 Жыл бұрын

It would make sense that people began speaking by mocking the sounds around them then using those sounds to relay information. Overtime that would have become more and more complex adding different parts of speech and new words.

@lwrncjms Жыл бұрын

Doubt it

@ThReverend6661 Жыл бұрын

@@lwrncjms oh do ya?

@blacklyfe5543 Жыл бұрын

I don't understand

@johnbarnett6924 Жыл бұрын

Excellent , food for thought, thanks for the post John

@thenortonanti 3 жыл бұрын

I got a feeling when humans first talked, they were like New Yorkers yelling at each other

@kamimikuta4929 3 жыл бұрын

I need to make a comic about this

@Toasty_22 3 жыл бұрын

I'M WALKIN HERE

@gridone769 2 жыл бұрын

IM GETTIN MY CAWFEE..

@Thecardoctor365 2 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂

@kalinystazvoruna8702 2 жыл бұрын

As an ex-New Yorker, that's so true!!!

@seanmundy8952 3 жыл бұрын

Even though Steve is currently no longer present, our evolved hyoid bones allow us to say "....and Steve!" at the end of the video every time.

@mailasun 3 жыл бұрын

Did they ever explain what happened to Steve?

@mikoajparszyk2169 3 жыл бұрын

@@mailasun he probably just have no money to pay them because of covid

@seanmundy8952 3 жыл бұрын

@@mailasun I would want to say that maybe he had no money left to give them. My 'joking' theory is that Steve is just some kid who got caught using his parents' credit card to donate to Eons to fuel his passion for paleontology and anthropology.Why else would he not give out his last name? He was just "Steve" to everyone. MAybe we will get an explanation, or he might just suddenly return one day.

@stevebennett9839 3 жыл бұрын

I'm present.

@BrotherSkodidi 3 жыл бұрын

maybe we should all chip in on a patreon in honor of Steve! -- what do you think?

@27management 3 жыл бұрын

Finally someone is talking about this. I’ve been wondering for years

@SoulfulSilence101 6 ай бұрын

This video beautifully captures the essence of our initial conversation. Nostalgia hits hard, and it's heartwarming to relive those first moments. Here's to the beginning of something special! 🌟 #Memories #FirstTalk #Heartwarming

@auroraborealis1060 3 жыл бұрын

Growing up I went to a Jewish day school. Evolution was never talked about and I never thought about it. In college I took a physical anthropology class and fell in love. Thank you for this channel! It has taught me so much. I’ve learned to balance religion and evolution in a way that I feel comfortable partly because of this channel❤️

@masterofpuppets5072 3 жыл бұрын

You changed for the good

@vph7 3 жыл бұрын

❤️

@mosesagabon7152 3 жыл бұрын

Human race dates backs hundreds of thousands of years while abrahamic religions date back less than 10 thousand years. Faith is a belief but not an evidence.

@auroraborealis1060 3 жыл бұрын

@@mosesagabon7152 never said it was. I had the chance to sit down with a Rabbi and look through different sources and articles on how Judaism can work with evolution rather than against it. It’s just how I feel.

@ACBmonkey 2 жыл бұрын

@@auroraborealis1060 I feel the same way about Christianity. It doesn't have to go against science, in fact the catholic church was the main funding for scholars and researchers historically, in the parts of the world that were mainly Catholic that is, and same goes for other religions it's really fun to see the overlaps in religion and science.

@he-lium 3 жыл бұрын

First words uttered by human ancestors: "Ooo, eee, ooo, aaa, aaa... ...ting, tang, walla, walla, bing, bang"

@jonathanryan9946 3 жыл бұрын

"...Dow Dow Dow Dow..."

@universalsoldier2293 3 жыл бұрын

That's my favorite song!

@algaroththemage 3 жыл бұрын

Alllriiight!

@jonasweissinger8635 3 жыл бұрын

@@algaroththemage you know what time it is?

@gaufrid1956 3 жыл бұрын

Ay ay ay, ay ay ay, nganong sakitong man!

@kylesanford3666 2 жыл бұрын

This was one of the most brilliant videos I’ve seen.

@WalterHildahl Жыл бұрын

The people who drew pictures on cave walls, also told verbal stories at the same time. Just like we do.

@hyzercreek Жыл бұрын

Those were modern humans

@thegoosegod Жыл бұрын

@@hyzercreek Actually, no. early humans and neanderthals did this as well. Not only that, but recently (2020) they found out that Neanderthals also made physical art as well, not just paintings! They were a lot more advanced and intelligent than we often assume

@yourstruly4817 3 жыл бұрын

I remember this vaguely, it was when somebody threw a bone in the air and it turned into a spaceship

@ninetoedlizard6650 3 жыл бұрын

HEY 2001 REFERENCE, NICE DUDE!!!! Just watched it for the first time about a month ago, loved it, that ending is something else!

@PaleGhost69 3 жыл бұрын

We want pie! No one? Fine... Civilization it is...

@korstmahler 3 жыл бұрын

Six or so days before we land another rover on mars with it's own drone attached. NASA will be livestreaming the event on youtube, and I feel that metaphor is all the more potent for that. Not only are we still throwing things into the air, we've got so good at it that we're trying to make the thing we threw able to launch it's own thing on other worlds.

@gyozakeynsianism 3 жыл бұрын

No that's how we developed nuclear weapons. Same concept though.

@wesleyhempoli5548 3 жыл бұрын

what?

@BryanMorgan 3 жыл бұрын

I have a degree in Anthropology and my Wife has degrees in Speech Pathology so this episode has been a great fusion of our interests! Thanks for always providing compelling educational content.

@huntermcclovio4517 2 жыл бұрын

very interesting topics you probably talk about. like the reconstruction of the pre - Indo-European Language, or language isolates.

@prezentoappr1171 2 жыл бұрын

@@huntermcclovio4517 borean linguistics meme

@JazzFlop212 Жыл бұрын

@@thomasreto2997 macrodose and see even more

@haroldadams1219 Жыл бұрын

I love speech pathology! Such a cool profession ❤

@kentherapy7022 5 ай бұрын

0:22...Ha...!.....Talking apes...😆

@conred6635 3 жыл бұрын

Gotta say I love this channel brilliant format and very interesting content.

@warren52nz Жыл бұрын

Absolutely fantastic!

@TheNinjaKiwi1 3 жыл бұрын

Can we have an episode on Parasaurolophus and it’s crest?

@epauletshark3793 3 жыл бұрын

That would be pretty cool.

@jaisanatanrashtra7035 3 жыл бұрын

Also Brachiosaurus and its bulbous nose ❤️

@Linkfan001 3 жыл бұрын

@Baldhina Asnake they have not. The ram head dinos have been left untouched so far.

@SGGCREATIVES 3 жыл бұрын

Who?

@tlnn6598 3 жыл бұрын

“UGH!!!”......Google Translation: “A time has come for us to voice our opinion on the realm of society.”

@Arominit 3 жыл бұрын

It's 2021, you can't say "ugh" that's hate speech!

@nicolaiveliki1409 3 жыл бұрын

In our group 'ugh' means 'what are we eating tomorrow, and who's cooking?'

@scottlee9373 3 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣🤣🤣🏆🏁

@illuminatedperspectives2894 3 жыл бұрын

Humans didn’t evolve we were genetically engineered. It is impossible to evolve into humans from ape like creatures. They are two completely different species

@tlnn6598 3 жыл бұрын

@Arominit - Good Point! 😳😳😳

@JackthePumpkincat 2 жыл бұрын

Can't imagine a million years later our new generation look at us like how we look at them today...

@mohsinaziz2000 Ай бұрын

Excellent effort for including key concepts ..shows the amount of effort put in making the video

@JellyAntz 3 жыл бұрын

When We First Talked? Easy, when the teacher leaves the classroom

@kylemorgan1272 3 жыл бұрын

What about the deaf blind guy playing pin ball

@JellyAntz 3 жыл бұрын

@@kylemorgan1272 When he first replied to something on social media

@mta4562 3 жыл бұрын

i know why, because some guy wanted to chat up some chick.

@henrg 3 жыл бұрын

@@kylemorgan1272 wasn't he dumb too in the song?

@bleep4288 3 жыл бұрын

Calm down ya mad lad.

@goobydooby4815 3 жыл бұрын

Just think about it, in a million years, we’ll be in history documentaries and history books, it’s crazy for me just to think about it

@treve.mp3 3 жыл бұрын

If we’re still around lol

@davidpavel5017 3 жыл бұрын

No we won't, the big people will, but not you and i tho

@richardbraakman7469 3 жыл бұрын

Let's first see if we make it to the 22nd century :)

@bias2784 3 жыл бұрын

If we exist in a million years, we'll be past documentaries and books.

@HuggyBear420 3 жыл бұрын

Humans have already been on this planet for about 4.5 million years. So you have to use that timeline to determine the next mass extinction. In 450 million years there have been around 6 mass extinctions that we know of.

@rpwbass 5 ай бұрын

This is the most fascinating thing I have seen in quite some time.

@filmic1 Жыл бұрын

So interesting. Always fascinated by the chronology of the vertebrate visceral arches.

@Jackalope411 3 жыл бұрын

I wonder what the first conversation sounded like.

@richardbraakman7469 3 жыл бұрын

Probably an argument about killstealing and who gets the loot drop

@barneyrubble4293 3 жыл бұрын

"ungh ungh ungh oooohhh, ungh ungh ungh ungh ungh "

@hendilman 3 жыл бұрын

"Give me that." "No."

@charlesjmouse 3 жыл бұрын

Probably quite one-sided! Or F: What are you thinking? M: ..?

@gyozakeynsianism 3 жыл бұрын

It was something about McDonald's in France. Do you know that a Quarter Pounder is called a Royale with Cheese?

@michaelyu2744 3 жыл бұрын

And millions of years later, an introvert like me isn't using that thing.

@smurfyday 3 жыл бұрын

Even when you write or read silently, you're vocalizing it in your head.

@Leomoon101 3 жыл бұрын

Same here.

@teatarou 3 жыл бұрын

@@smurfyday it’s a joke

@chetanphoenix 3 жыл бұрын

You're evolved from speech to KZfaq comments.

@tomris225 2 жыл бұрын

Same

@orlevzach 6 ай бұрын

Awesome episode! Thanks!!!

@arthurdixon5890 4 ай бұрын

Fascinating, thank you for this video.

@ellis1259 3 жыл бұрын

I wish this mentioned sign languages. We dont know if sign languages and voiced languages developed at the same time or if one style came first. I don't know of any way to prove the truth scientifically but voiced languages arent the only languages and that's important.

@davidzalesak9639 3 жыл бұрын

I think sign languages probably evolved sooner from just pointing and facial expressions. chimpanzees can learn sign language and decently understand it.

@SiennaBlossom420 3 жыл бұрын

@@davidzalesak9639 Unfortunately, I have to pop your bubble. We can teach some primates some gestures that have meaning, but these gestures lack grammar. And grammar is an integral part of what makes most human communication language. "Pointing and facial expressions" alone do not make a language.

@musicalBurr 3 жыл бұрын

@@davidzalesak9639 Apparently chimps don't understand pointing very well. Dogs understand it better than chimps. Theory being because they've been hanging around with us for the last 25-30,000 years.

@warwicklewis8735 3 жыл бұрын

I would say that comes under the heading of body language. Fairly common throughout the animal kingdom. Birds reptiles fish and even insects use gestures and postures to convey meaning.

@keithfaulkner6319 3 жыл бұрын

Check out the movie "Caveman", starring Ringo Star and Barbara Bach. It has almost no dialogue, but its sign and body language is perfectly understandable. Even the retarded tyrannosaurus gets its point across. The movie is brilliant, and hillarious(sp?).

@D.G.M. 3 жыл бұрын

5:10 More like the vowel sounds "aah", "ee" and "ooh", I would guess?

@ds27315 3 жыл бұрын

Yes, that's correct. It is worth noting, though, that many dialects of English (at least North American ones) actually pronounce /u/ sounds with the tongue significantly farther forwards than the sound actually represented by "u" in the International Phonetic Alphabet (which is presumably what the papers mean).

@WilliamAndrea 3 жыл бұрын

That was my thought too. /a/ is actually similar to the vowel in TRAP, /i/ is the vowel in FLEECE, and /u/ is the vowel in GOOSE. Meanwhile, the letters A, I, and U are pronounced /eɪ/, /aɪ/, and /ju/. BTW, the reason for that pronunciation difference is also fascinating: English went through a sound change called the Great Vowel Shift where basically, a bunch of the long vowel sounds changed over about 300 years between 1400 and 1700. The most obvious ones are: A /a:/ -> /eɪ/ E /e:/ and /ɛː/ -> /i:/ I /i:/ -> /aɪ/ O /ɔː/ -> /oʊ/ or /əʊ/ or /o/ OO /oː/ -> /uː/ OU /u:/ -> /aʊ/ The transcription uses the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is primarily based on Romance languages, which didn't undergo the same sound shift, which is why it doesn't match with the English spelling.

@harmonicaveronica 3 жыл бұрын

Yep! Those symbols were in IPA and that's how they are pronounced

@theholywater 3 жыл бұрын

Yes basically, I was kinda upset she didn’t pronounce the sounds how they’re actually pronounced instead of naming what they look like to an English speaker. To hear these sounds correctly pronounced you could just go look up “IPA with audio” on google.

@ronjayrose9706 3 жыл бұрын

The most primal of all sounds

@remmingtoncruzoe8282 Жыл бұрын

Excellent episode- kudos!

@Thjesht_Teo 7 ай бұрын

This is becoming my favourite channel.

@christophergeissler1635 3 жыл бұрын

Linguist here! I really appreciated how this video took effort to distinguish between speech (vocalizations used for language) and language. But it’s important to remember that modern humans are equally capable of acquiring spoken languages and signed languages. The study of our ancestors’ vocal tracts is fascinating and important, but it doesn’t tell us if they were capable of modern-type language because signed languages are still a possibility. - Chris Geissler, Yale University Department of Linguistics

@agimasoschandir 3 жыл бұрын

[but it doesn’t tell us if they were capable of modern-type language ] If you said "capable of modern phonetic sounds", that would make sense, since it is the sounds that are being questioned. Whether they could understand modern language would depend on them learning that language, although I suspect there may be concepts that their brains may not have developed the ability to understand. Looking at it the other way, modern humans would not readily be able to understand theirs. They would need to learn it, and there may be also concepts of theirs that would not translate

@Laura-kl7vi Жыл бұрын

This is late but I appreciate your comment. Scientists are so intent on speech it seems, this video doesn't even mention signed languages. It's frustrating. Meanwhile, in the US, ASL is the 3rd most common language used (after English and Spanish). There are places in the world that have parts of their language usage in signs as well though I can't recall specifics

@fleetskipper1810 Жыл бұрын

Intuitively I agree that sign language would’ve been used in conjunction with vocalizations from quite early in hominid evolution. Finding evidence that early hominids used signing more than studying hyoid bones.

@nekkidnora 3 жыл бұрын

As a fan of both linguistics and paeleontology, this is my favourite episode of Eons yet. I've watched it through 3 times.

@s.unosson 3 жыл бұрын

She forgot about the need of a brain to speak.

@formula1marshal 5 ай бұрын

Ayo wanna bounce on this no limbs lil mama?

@marcus3cfc 3 жыл бұрын

Loved this great little video! Very informative thank you! :D

@santiagovenegas4388 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite channels

@josephromano8548 3 жыл бұрын

The speaker has a very pleasing tone to her voice. Which ironically makes listening to her talk about talking enjoying

@jc.1191 3 жыл бұрын

She does

@r0bw00d 2 жыл бұрын

Where's the irony in that?

@ameliastill7105 2 жыл бұрын

In this case the word ‘ironically’ is incorrect use ‘coincidentally’ instead

@royrowland5763 Жыл бұрын

@@ameliastill7105 Or "unsurprisingly".

@forg1v3nn71 Жыл бұрын

she has that american fry lol its horrible to listen

@emilyjanet455 3 жыл бұрын

Why is the thought of prehistoric storytellers making me cry rn???

@29jgirl92 3 жыл бұрын

Sitting around the fire, telling stories to their little children, just like we do!

@theren2486 3 жыл бұрын

@@29jgirl92 and eating woolly mammoth meat !

@charliejohanssen7421 3 жыл бұрын

Ancestors calling, if you wanna explore that feeling I really recommend the books "The Divine Feminine in Western Europe" by Sharon Paice Macleod a history of the movement of storytelling from prehumans thru to the middle ages and today, and "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer a Potawotami native american book of a botanist and mother's stories that are not only relevant, but pressing us from here into the future. The first is probably the most directly relevant to you but the second leads out of it into today quite well.

@wahn10 2 жыл бұрын

Oh please, take your meds. It should make you smile, not cry.

@emilyjanet455 2 жыл бұрын

@@wahn10 hey, I can cry in a happy way! I just love the feeling of being connected through story to ancient humans we will never know

@planclops Жыл бұрын

This is so fascinating to me as a Speech-Language Pathologist!

@davidrobertson3930 4 ай бұрын

I really enjoy your work. Thanks

@Sciencerely 3 жыл бұрын

As a human biologist, I think the recent evolution of humans has been remarkable in many ways. Besides gaining the ability to speak, we also got a quite unique form of thermoregulation (also known as sweating) and our brains expanded so enormously that babies are born prematurely to allow the exit through the birth canal. Moreover, a lot of people of European descent are able to drink milk as adults due to a mutation which occurred roughly 20 000 years ago and made us lactose tolerant (I covered this in my videos). Human evolution is amazing!

@Morfeusm 3 жыл бұрын

Oh I have so many questions! It’s so exiting!

@rogerstone3068 3 жыл бұрын

I think the really interesting bit is that several of the developments that enable us to be the modern humans that we are, all have to happen together. Big brains are an expensive luxury, and take a lot of food energy. So you need team hunting, which requires coordination and planning; and cooking, so the energy value of food is higher. That needs some significant technology and skills being discovered and passed on. But how can you develop those if you don't have the big brains first?

@TheMaru666 2 жыл бұрын

@@rogerstone3068 And the language to more efective transmision of knowledge .

@ahwabanmukherjee5065 Жыл бұрын

Indo-European descent*. My skin is darker than some African Americans, and yet the best part of my protein my diet comes from milk.

@jamespower5165 Жыл бұрын

@@rogerstone3068 Somehow that remains unsatisfactory, doesn't it? It feels like we don't really understand why big brains evolved. Language(not necessarily spoken) and required for hunting may have played a role in driving the development of the brain but it's still a mystery

@milindkundal1518 3 жыл бұрын

Really loved this episode 😊. I expected none less from your channel.I impressed my school teacher once in a discussion about evolution😂,many thanks to you. Hope this channel thrive for eternity.

@nagatouzumaki4628 3 жыл бұрын

Wow

@Jbarack98 3 жыл бұрын

Where are the transitional fossils at?

@forthepeoplebythepeople2442 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, thx!! Most detailed and informative vids I've seen!! Thx again

@Articulate99 Жыл бұрын

Always interesting, thank you.

@icollectstories5702 3 жыл бұрын

6:24 The English captions contain the first time I've ever read the contraction "to've" (= "to have").

@rtk3543 3 жыл бұрын

I'm English and I've never seen this either, maybe just text speak.

@sheer_1 3 жыл бұрын

I've never read it either but I've said it countless times

@rtk3543 3 жыл бұрын

@@sheer_1 Good point lol.

@ZwamTekMusic 3 жыл бұрын

hey PBS Eons! ❤️ I wanted to say thanks for making these videos.... Paleo videos kept me from ending my life in 2020.... through the facts that paleontology shows that its all about "Survive and reproduce" now, I dont want children due me having a quite severe and complex case of PDD-NOS and ADHD. and I do not want to kids to have my genes... so I stuck to the "survive" aspect. now in 2021 its going a lot better, and you guys were a big part of succeeding to break the "vacuum feeling"... I hope you guys are alright, and I wish I could do something that would help the channel. but I have a very low income, so I cannot go to patreon sadly... So all I can do is thank you from the deepest bottom of my heart and "soul".....thanks for being there with your videos and keeping me alive....if it wasnt for channels like you, I dont really know if Id made it out alive.....just know your videos can safe lives! ❤️ thanks a lot! ❤️❤️

@TheINFJChannel 2 жыл бұрын

Love the narrator. She's so good!

@allbriardup6451 2 жыл бұрын

Love your content! Have a great day 😀

@Otokichi786 3 жыл бұрын

Ogg: I sing the body electric! Zog: What are you saying? Ogg: I'm just clearing my throat. Zog: Grunt, instead, that we understand.

@earthknight60 3 жыл бұрын

The key phrase that's repeated a few times here is, "Speak *like we do*." Language and speaking is largely a mental/cultural problem, the issue of specific anatomy comes in mainly if you are insisting that said species speak just like we do (same vocal range, same tones, same use of vowels/consonants, etc), but speaking like we do is a result of selective pressures on those parts of our anatomy, which indicates that speaking and likely language *predates* the modern forms of those physical structures and that their current shape was guided by the selective pressures speaking and using language placed on them. Language doesn't fossilize, but material remains of tools and such, as well as inferred evidence, can tell us a lot about our ancestors and increasingly the consensus is that *Homo erectus/Homo ergaster* and *Homo heidelbergensis* had extremely complex communication skills and likely language. Did their speaking sound like ours? No, not likely, for the reasons mentioned in the video, but their speech doesn't have to sound just like ours for it to be considered speech. What's important is the symbology being expressed via said speech and the grammar that ties it together. That doesn't leave direct remains, but when a species can do things like make boats (wich *Homo erectus* is thought to have done), has a persistent material culture, makes clothes, learns to use fire and cook and passes that knowledge on to others a very strong case is made that said species has some way of communicating abstract ideas sequentially and the ability to explain things.... which is pretty much the definition of a language. For our modern vocal anatomy to have evolved to the precision is has there needs to have been a *lot* of talking and communication taking place *before* that, otherwise there wouldn't have been enough selective pressure to push our vocal anatomy in the direction it was.

@anonymous-zo5ic 3 жыл бұрын

Bit speculative but I also wonder if the use of complicated manual skills points towards the idea that use of signs may have predated use of speech? I can sort of see how the jump might've happened in a species used to watching and copying increasingly complicated things others did with their hands

@aleanbh3808 3 жыл бұрын

Yes the gesturing during ambush hunting, the miming out stories and later singing them around the human hearth - the act of doing it - likely was the pressure in the morphology changes from Australopithecunes to homo (same as tools themselves shaped our hands - plus what we’d exapted from arboreal life of course eg Orrorin’s pincer grip).

@colinrobinson1924 3 жыл бұрын

Well said. The changes in human vocal anatomy are much more likely to have arisen through selective pressure than through pure luck. Where would the selective pressure come from, if not from incremental development of language?

@vph7 3 жыл бұрын

I wish I was smart

@EdJUber 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, you saved me from having to post this! Instead, I'll be more specific. All modern languages use vowels phonemically, that is to say two different words can be the same, except for the vowel. Think of "soon" and "seen" in English. If the modern hyoid been evolved to allow more precise articulation of vowels, there's a clear implication that vowels were being used phonemically *before* it evolved, which, in turn, implies that those hominids had more sophisticated oral communications than any of our living related species.

@johncrever3415 Жыл бұрын

Awesome overview. Thank you. 🙏🏼. 😻

@jenv9782 3 жыл бұрын

Love you guys!

@fugithegreat 3 жыл бұрын

I just want to thank this and other educational channels for teaching me more about this. When I was a kid, none of human evolutionary history was ever mentioned in school, apart from a flippant incredulous remark that humans were thought to be descended from monkeys. When I was able to start studying this stuff on my own with the advent of the internet, it has been fascinating to delve deeper into our prehistory.

@thomasthecommentrater3703 3 жыл бұрын

Our first words: Reject Monke, become Humanity. Our last words: Reject Humanity, go back to Monke.

@hamstsorkxxor 3 жыл бұрын

Reject humanity, return to crab!

@wirecrossing2198 3 жыл бұрын

@@hamstsorkxxor We could still evolve into crabs. Keep the faith.

@elijahalvia4558 3 жыл бұрын

@@hamstsorkxxor Reject humanity, become vampire.

@valletas 2 жыл бұрын

"Reject humanity, become machine"

@c.bsmith5086 3 жыл бұрын

Don’ t stop. Your shows are so important. Based on sound Science. It is going to be a lot of work. Picking apart stories. But hopefully we will have the correct template for life

@Mallymal1 3 жыл бұрын

“AUAHHHHHHHHG AHHH AHHH AHHH AHH AHHH AHH” Translation: “ay I’m bout to head out want some mammoth or something ??”

@josealfonsozegarrs2399 3 жыл бұрын

I practice my English and learn new things, the best channel ever :D

@josealfonsozegarrs2399 3 жыл бұрын

@Eastern fence Lizard thanks you, my friend nwn

@raccoonman6251 3 жыл бұрын

We evolved to talk to tell you how we evolved to talk

@morganstarchild5359 3 жыл бұрын

Lol made me giggle

@Jbarack98 3 жыл бұрын

Despair is honest atheism

@anyascelticcreations 2 жыл бұрын

Nice job telling the story. Glad you can talk. 👍

@EladLerner 3 жыл бұрын

It's amazing just how much we can learn about sound making and hearing from new scanning techniques of these old bones.

@mst4309 3 жыл бұрын

When I first talked was September last year. When lockdown pushed my quiet arse into the abyss and longed for something social after all.

@sambradley9091 3 жыл бұрын

Are you ok?

@mst4309 3 жыл бұрын

@@sambradley9091 things r good now :)

@MooGAINZ 3 жыл бұрын

You spoke for the very first time in your life last year, and have not spoken since?

@urbanwarchief Жыл бұрын

Do you think we learned to whistle to mimic birds? Did we howl to trick the wolves to scare them off? Did we make the moose call for hunting? Life is interesting

@redneckgearheadgarage495 Жыл бұрын

Last winter I spent about 3 weeks intubated and in a coma. I was trached just before they brought me out of the comma. I couldn't speak. It was so hard to try to communicate without speech.

@tinkywinky1238 3 жыл бұрын

We are such a weird animal. Apes that stood upright, learned to sing, covered ourselves in complex brightly colored fabrics, and then fly. We are monkeys who wanted to be birds.

@Thecardoctor365 2 жыл бұрын

damn, what a quote. you should be a philosopher or something lol

@Kurzes_Spiel 3 жыл бұрын

As an amateur linguist and a lover of literally anything about prehistory - Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This scratches every itch I've ever had.

@amyoung101 2 жыл бұрын

Applause! It must have been challenging to make a video about speech while having to talk!🥰

@richardlittle6013 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, this is fascinating

@chivalrouslee 3 жыл бұрын

These types of topics are SO interesting! Knowing how we got this place nowadays is simply mesmerizing.

@VivRT96 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome episode ! This topic is really so cool to think about, looking forward to other episodes about our human history !

@eriknelson2559 Жыл бұрын

Modern Hadza communicate with "honey guide" birds which lead them to beehives in exchange for the beeswax. Hearing higher frequency sounds could reflect interactions with birds (?)

@kevinsysyn4487 4 ай бұрын

Love this video.

@scottlee9373 3 жыл бұрын

That is fascinating! The older I get, the more I realize, how little I know! lol Subscribed, thanks.

@sicahjehiah8729 3 жыл бұрын

I have waited so long for a video on this subject !!! I almost never make youtube comments, but I have been sooo tempted lately to make a comment requesting this, and a few others that i will list here(: When [where?] and why did we start: -kissing -talking [answered, thank you!!] -wearing clothes -burying our dead -making art, like music and painting/drawing -cooking food w fire and heat [which i think was in a past video actually] I'm so thankful for this series and for the hard work put into it! Always looking forward to the next vid 😎✌

@MrStress 3 жыл бұрын

imagine being the first human to HEAR speech from another human. he'd be like "WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Did i eat those weird berries again?"

@johnjay7739 2 жыл бұрын

It was an extremely gradual transition. Not like somebody just started speaking a language with even the basic words we use today.

@yoda2495 2 жыл бұрын

"Hey Barry" "Og bog boonga harold" Translation: you're drunk harold, go home.

@aninewforest Жыл бұрын

Vocal, verbal communication has its advantages and disadvatages. If you're a prey species, you would generally want to use a quiet form of communication to remain hidden unless signalling danger. Predators, too, because it allows for stealth. The bush people in southern Africa still use clicks which were probably the first form of human communication, because they are audible over distance when foraging or hunting in a group, but are less conspicuous than speech.

@robertperry6048 3 жыл бұрын

I am very happy that we are finally telling the truth about the origins of humans.

@jx995 3 жыл бұрын

Can you elaborate on the meaning of your comment?

@danjones4432 3 жыл бұрын

@@jx995 i think they are referring to science now being the more widely accepted events of history as opposed to religion

@SqwarkParrotSpittingFeathers 3 жыл бұрын

I don't get it either? Unless this is the first time this person has escaped religious creationism?

@sambradley9091 3 жыл бұрын

@@supernovamonkey4531 If you think that evolution means we "come from monkeys" then you don't know a damn thing. How about actually watch the video, which talks about hominid ancestors and how we *aren't* from other species of ape?

@robertperry6048 3 жыл бұрын

In my lifetime admitting we evolved into our current stage was met with outrage and sometimes violence.

@theeducatedfool 3 жыл бұрын

“For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination We learned to talk“

@or2ak 3 жыл бұрын

Pink floyd

@Charok1 3 жыл бұрын

so they don't know that tons of animals talk then

@lewisirwin5363 3 жыл бұрын

There's a silence around me

@furkantozan5437 3 жыл бұрын

The complexity of communication amongs members of a species varies from one to the other. Ours seems to be (for the time being because we like to believe we are awesome) the most complex of them all. What part of any of that suggests that we stopped being animals? It's one thing to adhere to human exceptionalism to a degree (i.e. human narcissism) but another to make a claim that can be generalized to any species with supposedly the most advanced of a trait. The snake with the deadliest venom is no longer an animal then. It's just a snake now without animality. Non-animal snake just like how your quotation makes it sound like we have been non-animal humans ever since we evolved to communicate more or less the way we do today. Do you think that's logical? I hope not. We are animals first. That's our extended family. Our surnames (genuses, species, etc) come later.

@fsmith45 3 жыл бұрын

It seems like the difference between vocalization and speaking it the ability to convey abstract ideas

@Realatmx Жыл бұрын

She: when we first talked Introverts: why 🥺😟😭 🤣🤣🤣

@mgentile7207 2 жыл бұрын

Love these documentaries! The science on this one is presented backwards. "The hyoid bone was this shape, thus they probably made these sounds" - It should be - "Early peeps were talking and communicating so much, that the hyoid bone morphed over time/generations. They were all talking, all of them, and their hyoid/larynx/inner ear evolved to accommodate speech." The low range hearing developed alongside low frequency resonance. Higher frequency resonance = smaller inner ear bones. The speech pushed the development of the bones. The bones didn't "allow" them to speak, or hear. This video makes it sound like the hyoids changed, and thus they could talk better. Truth is, necessity breeds invention. They talked first, then the hyoids/inner ear changed. Modern human anatomy is such, because we've been speaking so long.

@marcusabston6365 3 жыл бұрын

I like how she says probably... a huge issue with when we talk about human evolution is bias and wording making it seem like we know for certain that this came from that. In short we underestimate the capabilities of early humans we are unique to other hominids for good reason.

@Phobos_Anomaly 2 жыл бұрын

What reason is that?

@marcusabston6365 2 жыл бұрын

@@Phobos_Anomaly We have an arrogance to our nature that we're the 1st to create some form of technology. We still don't understand how any of the Aztecs, Mayans, or Egyptians made their pyramids

@Phobos_Anomaly 2 жыл бұрын

@@marcusabston6365 Yes. We do. It's not some mystery. Obviously we don't know for 100 percent certain but we can be reasonably sure we understand how they did it.

@marcusabston6365 2 жыл бұрын

@@Phobos_Anomaly Then explain one of the theories on how they did it. I don't say that to be smart I'm actually curious if you have heard of something, but as of now we really don't know. So yes that does make it a mystery.

@nathanabella5316 Жыл бұрын

Ppp pppp

@BoeingUSA 3 жыл бұрын

I love learning about humans ancestors and what defines us as humans. Would love more videos on human ancestors! Keep up the great work eons team!

@jangerritse1110 2 жыл бұрын

1:57 I am italian, and I could understand this.

@cshell9137 3 жыл бұрын

Fascinating!

@haramanggapuja 3 жыл бұрын

This is exactly why I got into linguistics: trying to figure out how all this came to be, how it works and how it changes. Thanks for a wonderful video. Please make more videos like this about the development of language in humans . . . and communication among and between species. Stay safe & stay well!