Why speech is the Achilles’ heel of the human race
The Greek hero of the Trojan war, Achilles, had only one vulnerable area on his body, his heel. Similarly, modern humans also have a vulnerable part of the our anatomy, the upper airway, which simultaneously accommodates for breathing, swallowing, and speaking. The ability to talk, however, came at a price.
Evolutionary biologists have stated that speech and language development was detrimental to our health. Overdevelopment of our speech structures compromised our …