There are 6 900 languages spoken world-wide, grouped according to 26 independent families. Over 400 languages – of which English is one – descended from the Indo-European family, a proto-language dating back some 8 000 to 9 500 years. What’s notable is that almost half of the global population speak a first language that has descended from this one family.
The study of the effect of climate in particular on speech and language, in general, was pioneered by the eminent Yale university anthropologist, Carol Ember, at the beginning of 2000. The latest linguistic research corroborates that language is indeed shaped by the environment.
“Climate, topography or vegetation have influenced the sounds of each language”, writes neuro-biologist Fiorenza Gracci in the French magazine “Science et Vie” (1). Even animal calls and birdsong develop according to habitat – whether forest, plain or desert, and sometimes are further influenced by seasonal changes in vegetation.
Vegetation plays an important role in the adoption of vowel sounds among humans. A study of consonantal or vowel richness in 628 languages in use around the world, mapped against zone of use, shows that languages in zones furthest away from dense vegetation tend to be consonant-rich, (such as the Saharan or Middle Eastern desert regions), compared to the abundance of vowels occurring in languages near tropical forests (such as the Amazon and Indonesia).
High altitude (for example in the Andes or Caucasian mountains), where only 10% of the world’s population lives, favours the use of ejective “spat” consonants. Atmospheric pressure facilitates the pronunciation of ejectives and helps the body retain moisture so crucial at altitude. Geographical location is therefore a determinant of linguistic evolution. On the other hand, humidity shapes tonal languages, which are pitch- or inflection-rich, and are found to be distributed in the tropics. The statistical correlation is very strong.
Caleb Everett, professor of Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Miami explains that following the same principle of Darwinian evolution, if the presence of a linguistic characteristic confers an advantage, however moderate in a given environment, it will spread according to exchanges between population groups over the course of time. Therefore, in climatic regions where the vocal cords are dehydrated, their vibration is affected and it becomes more difficult to modulate the frequency of sounds with precision.
So it seems probable that in tropical milieux, for example, that vegetation either degrades acoustic transmission by absorbing and dispersing higher frequencies – of which consonants are the most representative, or the heat creates eddies which partially destroy high frequencies.
As such, it makes sense that good communication in forests depended upon language rich in vowel sounds. We further find that in hot yet humid climates, languages are more melodious. Decreased vowel use – attained through opening the mouth more, is more prevalent in dry and hot regions where sound carries more easily – as the mouth is opened less during communication to preserve body hydration.
It’s therefore no surprise that apart from social influences, the nasality, melodiousness, resonance, gutturality etc. of a language is predicated in large part by the geographical implant of the culture and that, in the words of Gracci, “the vibrations of air molecules have been honed over the centuries as passed from mouth to mouth, from one region to another, and transmitted from generation to generation.”
1. Science & Vie, no. 1193, Feb 2017
