"Thus, the sounds of speech in themselves can account for the extinction of the Neanderthals".

Again, the book...

"Over the course of time even a slight advantage in coping with nature would have led to the increase of our human ancestors and a struggle available resources. That is the pattern commonly observed for species competing in the same ecological niche. Again, given the isolating effects of dialect, a small difference in lingistic and/or cognitive ability, operating over many generations, could have resulted in the Neaderthal extinction."

no apologies, necessary, m.

I was just curious as to how the author had decided that it was speech, or lack thereof, that would account for extinction. he had stated that Neanderthals had speech, though not as flexible as current homo sapiens, and then proceeded to say their lack of it caused their demise. seems incongruous to me. and the frog example didn't seem to support his idea. what would stop the Neanderthals from having their own dialects?

however, your recent quote, adding in differences in cognitive abilities begins to make more sense; also, territorial struggles with other sapient species with more advanced language skills, and the thesis is stronger.

anyway, it all deserves a bit more thought.




formerly known as etaoin...