All Articles Tagged As: language

Neandertals, Humans Share Key Changes To 'Language Gene' (10/21/2007)

A new study reveals that adaptive changes in a human gene involved in speech and language were shared by our closest extinct relatives, the Neandertals. The finding reveals that the human form of the gene arose much earlier than scientists had estimated previously. It also raises the possibility that Neandertals possessed some of the prerequisites for language. ...> Full Article

Gene Involved In Human Language Development Also Involved In Bat Echolocation (9/24/2007)

When it comes to the FOXP2 gene, humans have had most to shout about. Discoveries that mutations in this gene lead to speech defects and that the gene underwent changes around the time language evolved both implicate FOXP2 in the evolution of human language. ...> Full Article

Research Discovers Children With Tourette's Develop Grammar Skills Faster (7/17/2007)

Children with Tourette's syndrome may have to put up with some unwanted movement and verbal tics, but neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center and the Kennedy Krieger Institute have found that they are much quicker at processing certain mental grammar skills than are children without the disorder. ...> Full Article

Anthropologist Researches Monacan Tribe (7/1/2007)

Karenne Wood carries with her a responsibility that most anthropologists never consider. As a Monacan Indian, she brings her people along with her wherever she goes. This includes into the halls of academia, which, when it comes to cultural research, has not always been kind to Native Americans. ...> Full Article

Gossip An Evolutionary Tool Not A Character Flaw (7/1/2007)

A new study in Journal of Applied Social Psychology suggests that gossip is not a character flaw, but an evolved mechanism for maintaining status in one's social group. "The results of our study confirmed a consistent pattern of interest in gossip that is exploitable for social gain," says study author Francis McAndrew. "Specifically, damaging, negative news about rivals and positive news about friends and lovers was especially prized and likely to be passed on." ...> Full Article

Everyday Text Shows That Old Persian Was Probably More Commonly Used Than Previously Thought (6/23/2007)

For the first time, a text has been found in Old Persian language that shows the written language in use for practical recording and not only for royal display. The text is inscribed on a damaged clay tablet from the Persepolis Fortification Archive, now at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. The tablet is an administrative record of the payout of at least 600 quarts of an as-yet unidentified commodity at five villages near Persepolis in about 500 B.C. ...> Full Article

Some Language Preferences May Be Genetic (6/1/2007)

Genetic differences may influence the type of language spoken by different human groups, according to University of Edinburgh researchers. ...> Full Article