Comments on: Neanderthal Talk

By: Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:03:03 +0000

This was covered quite nicely by the SF writer Robert J. Sawyer in his novel "Hominids", about a quantum physicist from a parallel universe where Neanderthals became dominant who falls into our universe. He couldn't pronounce the 'ee' phoneme, so he had to refer to the character Mary as "Mare".

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:30:33 +0000

FAKE

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:18:00 +0000

Isn't our species superior to Neanderthals? Last time I checked, they died out, we are still here and most evidence points to the fact that we didn't kill them, they died of their own accord. Some claim Neanderthals are smarter because of their larger brains, but modern humans have smaller brains than our ancestors and tests indicate that our intelligence goes up with every generation.

By: ted

ted — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:58:21 +0000

Mere conjecture. The comments there are hi-larious.

By: Louisa

Louisa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:46:09 +0000

The comments following the article are more entertaining than the initial discussion.
Just read them and have the nerve to consider our species superior. lol

By: Lemons

Lemons — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:55:18 +0000

*I* think it's pretty cool, at least, to see how a different vocal tract would necessarily require a different distribution of language sounds...but then, I'm a Ling major for a reason.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:06:01 +0000

Having grown up in Columbus, Ohio.... I just can't hold myself in at the number of jokes available for a conference studying Neanderthals being held in Columbus.....

(snicker)

By: CheeseDuck

CheeseDuck — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:47:55 +0000

That's pretty high pitched. I always assumed that they would be lower.

By: Tim Giachetti

Tim Giachetti — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:51:11 +0000

Great find Missy. You always find the neat stuff.

By: MrsBug

MrsBug — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:31:36 +0000

Did anybody see all the hate and discontent in the comments at the link? Dang, that sure pulled them out of the woodwork!

By: Lasse

Lasse — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:17:04 +0000

Ah, neanderthals. First intelligent species fucked over by Homo Sapiens. Who will be next?

By: tabest

tabest — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:45:08 +0000

well they have to start somewhere.

By: jack.wh

jack.wh — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:37:42 +0000

Personally, I thought that was a bit pointless. "Uh". What a caveman noise!

By: Hirudin

Hirudin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:23:55 +0000

Um... am I missing something? I skipped the article and went straight to the sound file. After listening to the... um... simulated voice I lost interest immediately.

Are they actually proud of that quarter-second blip?

By: Evilbeagle

Evilbeagle — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:21:03 +0000

The clip doesn't sound like much, but this sort of technology is fascinating, and the better it gets, the cooler it will be. I will be more impressed in about a decade when the technology is improved.