[Fwd: How Did People Learn to Talk? A Gene May Have Helped]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	[evol-psych] How Did People Learn to Talk? A Gene May Have Helped
Date:	Mon, 19 Aug 2002 09:03:01 -0600
From:	Ian Pitchford <ian.pitchford@...>
Reply-To:	Ian Pitchford <ian.pitchford@...>
Organization:	http://human-nature.com/
To:	evolutionary-psychology@yahoogroups.com

Language Gene
[RealAudio] NPR (8/15/02)

Audio
http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20020815.me.11.ram

Talking Gene
How Did People Learn to Talk? A Gene May Have Helped

By Alex Dominguez
The Associated Press

Aug. 15 - A gene linked to language became widely established in the human
population within the last 200,000 years, perhaps because it helped people
communicate better and survive, researchers said.

      While the FOXP2 gene is not believed to have caused speech to emerge,
it probably allowed humans to speak much more clearly, said study author
Svante Paabo, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.
      Researchers found the human version of the gene is different from its
counterpart in other species, showing changes that may have contributed to
our language abilities.

      "We had communication of a sort, and then this change happened and
allowed the carriers to articulate much better. This may have been the time
we arrived at truly modern, articulate language," Paabo said. "It sort of, I
believe, fine-tuned our speech."

Full text
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/language020815.html







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