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That could help explain how language evolved in the first place, says Aleksandra Ćwiek, a linguistics Ph.D. student at the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics who led the new study.

These findings of “iconic” sounds could help scientists understand how human ancestors started using rich acoustic communication, says co-author Aleksandra Ćwiek, a linguist at the Leibniz-Center General Linguistics in Berlin.

“If gesture is good enough for language,” says Aleksandra Ćwiek, a linguistics Ph.D. student at the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics, “why the hell do we talk?”

Geoff Pullum, professor of general linguistics at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, says there are two broad issues.

At a personal level, smart communicators can anticipate looming confusion and avoid potentially confounding shorthand, says Geoffrey Pullum, professor of general linguistics at the University of Edinburgh — but it takes extra mental energy to essentially read someone else’s mind.