Neanderthals and language

Abstract

The main objective of this study has been to analyse whether Neanderthals used spoken language as a mean of communication. This work is divided into three main sections. In the first one, the history of Neanderthal research is explained by the remains found, revealing them chronologically through a table. Moreover, it has been seen that the methods, discoveries and hypotheses have been articulated over time, and in the second section, the main scientific consensus and the main lines of discussion have been presented. The former refers to the consensus of the basic character of the Neanderthals (who they were, during which period did they live, how did they look like or what their life was like), and the latter discussion refers to certain issues outlined by some anthropologists and linguists (extinction of the species, crossbreeding with other species and language). All this leads to the problem of language. Even though this aspect of language is one of the main lines of discussion that should be included in this section, being the core of this work, it has been deepened in the third section. To this end, three main arguments that could prove that Neanderthals did have language are presented: the cultural aspects that might suggest the existence of language; the physical conditions for articulated language; and the results of genetic analysis.