This year, as part of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, I hosted a satellite event about the evolution of speech.
Here’s the preamble:
In recent years, there has been a resurgence in research in the evolution of language and speech. New techniques in computational and mathematical modelling, experimental paradigms, brain and vocal tract imaging, corpus analysis and animal studies, as well as new archeological evidence, have allowed us to address questions relevant to the evolution of our phonetic capabilities. The workshop will focus on recent work addressing the emergence of our phonetic capabilities, with a special focus on the interaction between biological and cultural evolution.
And here’s the meeting, in video form, should anyone have regretted missing it, or wanted to watch the talks again!
Here’s the play order:
- John H. Esling, Allison Benner & Scott R. Moisik – Laryngeal Articulatory Function and Speech Origins
2. Scott R. Moisik & Dan Dediu – Anatomical biasing and clicks: Preliminary biomechanical modeling
3. Seán G. Roberts, Caleb Everett & Damián Blasi – Exploring potential climate effects on the evolution of human sound systems
4. Padraic Monaghan & Willem H. Zuidema – General purpose cognitive processing constraints and phonotactic properties of the vocabulary
5. Bodo Winter & Andy Wedel – Simulating the interaction of functional pressure, redundancy and category variation in phonetic systems
6. Bill Thompson – Universality in Cultural Transmission