Scientists believe that Homo sapiens had the ability to speak. Archeoligist compared the skull of a Neanderthal to the skull of an earlier hominid. The hypoglossal tunnels, which is a part of the body that carries nerves to the tongue, was larger then the ones of the earlier species. The bigger the tunnel is the more sounds you can make. Their hypoglossal tunnels also looked a lot like ours so apparently they could speak. Some people claim that even though they probably could talk they still might not have been able to pronounce certain sounds. They might not have been able to say some vowels like a, i, and u. They probaly coudn't say some consanents like k and g either. Speech was still a very important step in evolution.