Proto-consonants were information-dense via identical bioacoustic tags to proto-vowels

Adriano R. Lameira; Raquel Vicente; António Alexandre; Gail Campbell-Smith; Cheryl Knott; Serge Wich; Madeleine E. Hardus

doi:10.1038/s41562-017-0044

Proto-consonants were information-dense via identical bioacoustic tags to proto-vowels

Adriano R. Lameira, Raquel Vicente, António Alexandre, Gail Campbell-Smith, Cheryl Knott, Serge Wich, Madeleine E. Hardus^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Why did our ancestors combine the first consonant- A nd vowel-like utterances to produce the first syllable or word? To answer this question, it is essential to know what constituted the communicative function of proto-consonants and of proto-vowels before their combined use became universal. Almost nothing is known, however, about consonant-like calls in the primate order^1,2. Here, we investigate a large collection of voiceless consonant-like calls in nonhuman great apes (our closest relatives), namely orangutans (Pongo spp.). We analysed 4,486 kiss-squeaks collected across 48 individuals in four wild populations. Despite idiosyncratic production mechanics, consonant-like calls displayed information-dense content and the same acoustic signatures found in voiced vowel-like calls by nonhuman primates, implying similar biological functions. Selection regimes between proto-consonants and proto-vowels were thus probably indistinguishable at the dawn of spoken language evolution. Our findings suggest that the first proto-syllables or proto-words in our lineage probably constituted message reiterations, instead of messages of increasing intricacy.

Original language	English
Article number	0044
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Volume	1
Early online date	8 Feb 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0044
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 8 Feb 2017

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Lameira_2017_NatHB_ProtoConsonants_AAM
© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0044
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http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5199

Cite this

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abstract = "Why did our ancestors combine the first consonant- A nd vowel-like utterances to produce the first syllable or word? To answer this question, it is essential to know what constituted the communicative function of proto-consonants and of proto-vowels before their combined use became universal. Almost nothing is known, however, about consonant-like calls in the primate order1,2. Here, we investigate a large collection of voiceless consonant-like calls in nonhuman great apes (our closest relatives), namely orangutans (Pongo spp.). We analysed 4,486 kiss-squeaks collected across 48 individuals in four wild populations. Despite idiosyncratic production mechanics, consonant-like calls displayed information-dense content and the same acoustic signatures found in voiced vowel-like calls by nonhuman primates, implying similar biological functions. Selection regimes between proto-consonants and proto-vowels were thus probably indistinguishable at the dawn of spoken language evolution. Our findings suggest that the first proto-syllables or proto-words in our lineage probably constituted message reiterations, instead of messages of increasing intricacy.",

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Proto-consonants were information-dense via identical bioacoustic tags to proto-vowels

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