eli5 how humans can make so many sounds while most other animals with a tongue and mouth can make only few
In: Biology
We do have a pretty big vocal range compared to a lot of other animals, which makes sense because that is our primary way of communicating and we are social animals. Lots of other animals use body language, or they aren’t social animals and so they only need a small number of sounds to communicate basic concepts like fuck off. However we are far from the top of the list. There are many species of birds that can make every sound a human can make plus many many more. I would guess if you ranked every animal that makes noise based on how many they can make we would be near the top, but there would still be a tremendous gap between how many we can make and how many the top animals can make.
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