Arboreal origin of consonants and thus, ultimately, speech

Lameira, Adriano R.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2022.11.012

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Additional evidence for the importance of bilabial sounds among living (nonhuman) hominids comes from orangutans, the great ape with the richest consonant‐like repertoires described to date. [ 19 ] Across various calls and contexts, the most frequently produced and universal consonant‐like call is the kiss‐squeak. [ 20 ] The production of a kiss‐squeak is equivalent to that of a kiss sound by humans.…”

Section: /P/ For ‘Primates’mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Complementarily, because each and every language is universally composed by vowels and consonants, it is critical to continue cataloguing the consonant-like repertoire of great apes [15,43] and to identify the conditions that propelled their evolutionary diversification in the human lineage. [19] Ultimately, we will place ourselves in the best position to understand how and why consonants and vowels became inseparable and thriving 'vocal symbiotes' . [44,45] AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Adriano R. Lameira and Steven Moran conceived and wrote the paper.…”

Section: Conclusion: /P/ For 'Past Presumptions' and 'Prospective Pro...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life of p: A consonant older than speech

Lameira

Moran

2023

BioEssays

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Which sounds composed the first spoken languages? Archetypal sounds are not phylogenetically or archeologically recoverable, but comparative linguistics and primatology provide an alternative approach. Labial articulations are the most common speech sound, being virtually universal across the world's languages. Of all labials, the plosive 'p' sound, as in 'Pablo Picasso' , transcribed /p/, is the most predominant voiceless sound globally and one of the first sounds to emerge in human infant canonical babbling. Global omnipresence and ontogenetic precocity imply that /p/-like sounds could predate the first major linguistic diversification event(s) in humans. Indeed, great ape vocal data support this view, namely, the only cultural sound shared across all great ape genera is articulatorily homologous to a rolling or trilled /p/, the 'raspberry' . /p/-like labial sounds represent an 'articulatory attractor' among living hominids and are likely among the oldest phonological features to have ever emerged in linguistic systems.

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Section: /P/ For ‘Primates’mentioning

confidence: 99%