The speech - a specific feature of the evolution of the modern human (Homo sapiens)

The specific feature of humans, that distinguishes them from the animal world, is the speech. The speech is a form of communication in which we use comprehensive signs to express verbally ourselves and the surrounding reality. This definition imposes the opinion that the origin of the speech can be considered from the appropriately high level of the brain development. In order to trace the evolution of the ability to speak among the Primates, the measurements of the superofacial triangle of the splanchnocranium, according to Martin and Saller (1957), were carried out. The triangle characterises the distribution of the organs responsible for articulation of the sounds. The mathematical analysis concerned i.a. the descriptive statistics of the measurements, illustrated with the bar charts. On this basis, the Mahalanolobis distances between the examined taxons of primates were measured and presented graphically in form of the discriminant analysis. The applied model helped to divide entirely the monkey and apes from the Hominidae, and to form two clusters of taxons.  The conclusion is that the ability to speak is a sign of a quality change in the evolution of the Primates that led to the Homo sapiens form. Animals do not use such a wide spectrum of recognizing the surrounding reality and their interactive communication is based on the experience and instinct.