The Origins of Music: Preface - Preface

(Amelia) #1
David W. Frayer and Chris Nicolay

Abstract
Morphological evidence and skeletal markers related to speech sound produc-
tion are reviewed. Based on the fossil record, markers for vocal tract anatomy
indicate that the ability to produce the sounds of language and song appeared
early in the human lineage.

The production of speech sounds, whether for language or song, involves
the interaction of multiple anatomical regions (Wind 1992). Two major
anatomical areas are the processing center for organizing and control-
ling utterances, and the sound-production unit that creates and modifies
individual speech sounds. Other chapters in this volume address specific
areas of the brain that are important for language and music production,
so other than referring to these contributions and noting that brain
expansion and reorganization of specific areas associated with language
occur early in the hominid lineage, this chapter focuses on paleontolog-
ical evidence for the production of speech. Actual physical evidence for
speech-production units below the brain is sparse and in some cases
controversially interpreted. This might not be predicted by those on the
more theoretical side of language origins. For example, Hewes (1975)
compiled more than 11,000 references relating to language origins, cov-
ering approximately 400 years. His bibliography began with Medieval
citations and ended with those published in 1972. In the more than
twenty-five years since Hewes’ bibliography, we suspect another 11,000
publications related to language origins have appeared.
From the thousands of references on language origins, it is logical to
assume a considerable fossil record relevant to questions about when,
where, how, and why language arose. Yet, this is far from the case. Just
considering the papers published since Hewes’ bibliography, if one
stacked copies of all the single publications about language origins, surely
the pile would weigh orders of magnitude more than all the physical
evidence for linguistic abilities in the human fossil record. Whereas it is
probably true that a “fossil is worth a thousand words,” the paltry amount
of actual evidence for language origins as recorded in fossils should be
a little sobering to those willing to offer opinions about the origin of
linguistic ability.
A number of problems are associated with attempts to reconstruct the
evolution of the speech-production apparatus. First and foremost relates
to the aggravating fact that most of the critical anatomy is not preserved
in the fossil record since the vocal tract is made up of soft tissue. Most
speech sounds are produced when air from the lungs is forced through
the larynx, and bursts of energy are modified initially by the vocal cords,

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Fossil Evidence for the Origin of Speech Sounds

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