Kids Really Are Monkeys, Just Ask a Linguist

In my linguistics class we've been learning about hominid (pre-human and human) evolution, specifically the evolution of the vocal apparatus. In our last lecture my professor, Meiko Ueno, brought us back to the present and showed us a slide comparing the vocal apparatus of a chimpanzee, an adult, and a child. Interestingly enough, the child has much more in common with the chimp than the adult.

Now this might not seem right, kids are technically human (homo sapiens) not chimpanzee (homo troglodytes), no matter how much monkeying around you have to put up with, so what gives?

Here's the thing; the (adult) human vocal apparatus is a choking hazard. Yup. You heard me right, from an evolutionary perspective humans would rather risk a gruesome death (choking) than put down their cell phones. Our species has survived long enough to invent and use cell phones because human infants are born with the ability to eat without choking to death. As infants develop more muscle control, their vocal tract shifts into an adult human (talking) configuration (between ages 3 and 4).

If you think about it, evolution can be seen in the life of an individual (from monkey to man in five years) as well as the species.