2017年1月17日，国际知名学术期刊《PLOS ONE》在线发表了法国艾克斯-马赛大学Joël Fagot研究员的一篇研究论文，研究从狒狒的叫声中找到人类语言的发音起源。科学家对1335只狒狒进行了声学和舌部解剖学研究。结果发现，几内亚狒狒的几类叫声中包含着独特的类人元音。

此前研究认为，人类语言技能在拥有低喉部的类人动物出现后才开始发展。最新研究则对这一观点提出质疑，认为人类的发音体系是从几内亚狒狒等先祖已有的能力进化而来。他们还发现，几内亚狒狒的舌部拥有与人类相似的肌肉，这决定了发出元音的能力。

研究者在论文中说，这项研究结果并不支持现代智人突然同时拥有语言能力的假说，而是认为，人类的语言能力是在2500万年前，从其近亲先祖早已具备的发音技能进化而来。

研究人员还发现，狒狒在警示或求偶等沟通情境下的发声法与人类声音有松散的对应关系。去年一项针对猴子的研究也发现了五种与人类语言起源相关的元音。

原文链接：

evidence of a Vocalic Proto-System in the Baboon (Papio papio) Suggests Pre-Hominin Speech Precursors

原文摘要：

Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the vowel systems universally found in human language. Examining the vocalizations through acoustic analyses, tongue anatomy, and modeling of acoustic potential, we found that baboons (Papio papio) produce sounds sharing the F1/F2 formant structure of the human [ɨ æ ɑ ɔ u] vowels, and that similarly with humans those vocalic qualities are organized as a system on two acoustic-anatomic axes. This confirms that hominoids can produce contrasting vowel qualities despite a high larynx. It suggests that spoken languages evolved from ancient articulatory skills already present in our last common ancestor with Cercopithecoidea, about 25 MYA.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169321