page_title: Origin of speech
section_title: Hypoglossal canal
hierarchical_section_title: Origin of speech / Evolution of the speech organs / Neanderthal Speech / Hypoglossal canal
caption_attribution_description: Hypoglossal nerve, cervical plexus, and their branches.
context_page_description: The origin of speech refers to the more general problem of the origin of language in the context of the physiological development of the human speech organs such as the tongue, lips and vocal organs used to produce phonological units in all human languages.
context_section_description: The hypoglossal nerve plays an important role in controlling movements of the tongue. In 1998, one research team used the size of the hypoglossal canal in the base of fossil skulls in an attempt to estimate the relative number of nerve fibres, claiming on this basis that Middle Pleistocene hominins and Neanderthals had more fine-tuned tongue control than either australopithecines or apes. Subsequently, however, it was demonstrated that hypoglossal canal size and nerve sizes are not correlated, and it is now accepted that such evidence is uninformative about the timing of human speech evolution.
caption: Hypoglossal nerve, cervical plexus, and their branches
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