What do anatomical differences in the vocal production apparatus (larynx, pharynx, and oral cavity) between chimpanzees and modern humans suggest about the vocal behavior of each species?
In modern humans, the larynx sits lower, the face is shortened and the tongue is rounded compared to that of nonhuman primates. These changes are thought to enhance speech ability, giving humans a considerable advantage of articulating.
The position of the human larynx is much lower than that of chimpanzees. This leads to increased space for tongue and more flexibility in vocal tract in humans . It Directly lengthens the vocal tract resulting in increased range of variation in formant frequencies. Oral cavity is also shortened than chimpanzees and the air and food passages overlap allow the sounds from larynx to be controlled by movements of tongue and mouth.
In chimpanzees the vowel space is smaller due to inflexible nature of vocal tract. So they have very less ability compared to humans to produce many acoustically different sounds.
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