When We First Talked

I would love to know how humans evolved a love for music

Some random day a long time ago "hey" "hey"

First human to ever talk: "We now live in a society."

First words ever spoken. "We've been trying to reach you about your car's warranty."

"Unga bunga" "Greg, for the last time, no one wants to buy your essential oils"

Fun Fact: North American River Otters have distinct speech patterns as well! They even have a distinctive "chuckle" that they use to, as one biologist described, "send good vibes" out to their romp.

The two first human met, and their first word are: -"Hey Ron" -"Hey Billy"

I want to see the first human to ever see a wild horse and attempt to ride it.

Hi! I'm an opera singer, and thinking about how humans produce sound is an essential part of my job. The history of the evolution of speech is so rarely discussed, and it's SO cool - thank you for sharing!

As a linguist, this is one of the great mysteries. For instance, we can get a ballpark for when the various features required for speech production and understanding emerged, but did they converge on their own, or did they drive each other? Could Neanderthals speak? They're so much like us it's hard to imagine they didn't, but we don't know. Plus, how did language itself evolve? Some have argued that the first language was actually gestural, more like signed languages than spoken ones. Who knows! But if I ever got a time machine, this would definitely be up there in my list of things to investigate. Great episode!

Now do a video on why my cats don't understand the word "no".

I'm also interested in how other animals speak. Dolphins seem to have a word for seaweed (several actually) and it took scientists years to figure that out.

Another fun part of this is that the sound /f/ and /v/, the labiodentals, are very recent innovations. To make them, you need a slight overbite, which is a relatively recent anatomical change in humans thought to have happened with the onset of agriculture.

I remember this vaguely, it was when somebody threw a bone in the air and it turned into a spaceship

Growing up I went to a Jewish day school. Evolution was never talked about and I never thought about it. In college I took a physical anthropology class and fell in love. Thank you for this channel! It has taught me so much. I’ve learned to balance religion and evolution in a way that I feel comfortable partly because of this channel❤️

Eons is a superb program. It's this kind of television that shows clearly how good TV can be. Thanks a million for a job well done.

I got a feeling when humans first talked, they were like New Yorkers yelling at each other

Can we have an episode on Parasaurolophus and it’s crest?

Even though Steve is currently no longer present, our evolved hyoid bones allow us to say "....and Steve!" at the end of the video every time.

I have a degree in Anthropology and my Wife has degrees in Speech Pathology so this episode has been a great fusion of our interests! Thanks for always providing compelling educational content.