Did the Australopithecines Sing?

Since Hockett and Ascher developed their blending hypothesis for the evolution of human language, it has been criticized but no alternatives have been proposed. It is proposed that the "opening of the call system" occurred in a manner similar to the evolution of learned vocalizations in bi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 1973-02, Vol.14 (1/2), p.25-29
Main Author: Livingstone, Frank B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal vocalization
Bird songs
Chimpanzees
Communication systems
Evolution
Evolutionary genetics
Gestures
Humans
Ideas for Discussion
Language
Primates
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Summary:Since Hockett and Ascher developed their blending hypothesis for the evolution of human language, it has been criticized but no alternatives have been proposed. It is proposed that the "opening of the call system" occurred in a manner similar to the evolution of learned vocalizations in birds. Bird song is an open semantic system and does have duality, with pitch as the "phoneme" and the song as the "morpheme." These function primarily as territorial and mating calls and also as group recognition. The learned vocalizations of the early hominids had similar functions. Since it is now becoming apparent that modern human language was a late evolutionary development in the hominids, this rudimentary linguistic system might have been characteristic of most of the early hominids.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/201402