Did Neanderthals really speak like us?

Imagine hearing a high-pitched, nasal shriek and being told it’s the voice of a Neanderthal. That’s exactly the scenario posed by the BBC show Neanderthal: The Rebirth, which has gone viral online, sparking curiosity about what our extinct cousins sounded like. The IFLScience article under review takes this viral sensation as a springboard to explore the more rigorous science behind Neanderthal speech capabilities.

It has long been a mystery not only what Neanderthals looked like, but also how they sounded. New research suggests our extinct hominin cousins were far from the mute, brutish cavemen of stereotype — and may have spoken in ways strikingly similar to modern humans.

The debate resurfaced recently with a viral clip from the BBC programme Neanderthal: The Rebirth, which explored the so-called “high-pitched voice theory.” Vocal coach Patsy Rodenburg used a 3D model of a Neanderthal vocal tract, along with anatomical insights such as their deep rib cages and large nasal cavities, to recreate what their speech might have sounded like. The result — an uncanny, high-pitched nasal shriek — quickly drew public attention.

But beyond the TV spectacle, scientists are taking a more rigorous look at Neanderthal speech. Studies of skull reconstructions published in 2021 found that Neanderthals were capable of both producing and perceiving sounds in the 4–5 kHz range, close to modern human hearing. This strongly suggests they had the ability to communicate through spoken language at a level of complexity and efficiency similar to our own.

Linguists and anthropologists also point to wider evidence — from genetics and cognition to cultural artefacts — indicating that Neanderthals possessed the neurological and social capacity for language. “Neanderthals almost certainly spoke languages that were quite like our languages, but seemingly less structurally complex and less functionally flexible,” wrote Antonio Benítez-Burraco of the University of Seville in a recent pre-print paper. He suggested their syntax may have been simpler, with fewer functional categories and less distinctive sounds.

What remains uncertain is when complex language itself first emerged. Estimates vary from 50,000 years ago to over 2 million years ago, leaving open the possibility that Neanderthals lived at a linguistic turning point in human evolution.

What is increasingly clear, however, is that Neanderthals were not crude grunters. Whether their voices were higher-pitched, their grammar simpler, or their vocabulary more limited than ours, their speech likely carried rich meaning, emotion, and social depth. In the words of one researcher, they were not “mute shadows of humanity,” but creators of a cultural world in which language played a vital role.

By Vugar Khalilov