Ardipithecus anamensis, which is one of the earliest human ancestors, 4.5 million years ago, and Australopithecus afarensis, 3.5 million years ago had brains that were much too small to support speech. Homo Habilis (2.5-1.8 million years ago) had a more advanced frontal lobe which is where speech is controlled from but its larynx was not positioned low enough to allow it to produce the range of sounds recognisable as speech.
It was, in fact, only about 300,000 years ago that human ancestors developed the larynx, pharynx, hyoid and skull base that rendered them physically capable of speech.
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