Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2023 May 4

= May 4 =

Language and laugh
Why only humans have language?

And why humans laugh properly? Does humans have special ability in their tongue, throat, vocal cords?

Humans evolved in same environment with millions of species, so why can't animals have a language not just sounds. Some animals have bigger head than humans so their brain must have more capacity. If anyone checks brains of elephant, hippopotamus, great whale, what special thing is missing from their brain that human brains have? PatricSt (talk) 17:41, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
 * You could start by reading Origin of language. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:57, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
 * There is also an article titled Laughter which should answer many of your other questions. -- Jayron 32 18:06, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
 * "The prefrontal cortex is commonly associated with cognitive capacities related to human uniqueness: purposeful actions towards higher-level goals, complex social information processing, introspection, and language." --Lambiam 20:12, 4 May 2023 (UTC)
 * See also Animal communication. Shantavira|feed me 08:21, 5 May 2023 (UTC)


 * Rats also laugh, especially when tickled. However, they do so at frequencies higher than humans can hear, so this had gone unnoticed until quite recently. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.213.18.208 (talk) 11:19, 7 May 2023 (UTC).