Languages in Drier Climates Use Fewer Vowels

Abstract

This study offers evidence for an environmental effect on languages while relying on continuous linguistic and continuous ecological variables. Evidence is presented for a positive association between the typical ambient humidity of a language’s native locale and that language’s degree of reliance on vowels. The vowel-usage rates of over 4000 language varieties were obtained, and several methods were employed to test whether these usage rates are associated with ambient humidity. The results of these methods are generally consistent with the notion that reduced ambient humidity eventually yields a reduced reliance of languages on vowels, when compared to consonants. The analysis controls simultaneously for linguistic phylogeny and contact between languages. The results dovetail with previous work, based on binned data, suggesting that consonantal phonemes are more common in some ecologies. In addition to being based on continuous data and a larger data sample, however, these findings are tied to experimental research suggesting that dry air affects the behavior of the larynx by yielding increased phonatory effort. The results of this study are also consistent with previous work suggesting an interaction of aridity and tonality. The data presented here suggest that languages may evolve, like the communication systems of other species, in ways that are influenced subtly by ecological factors. It is stressed that more work is required, however, to explore this association and to establish a causal relationship between ambient air characteristics and the development of languages.

Language as shaped by the environment: linguistic construal in a collaborative spatial task

“…Furthermore, several studies have suggested that environmental factors can motivate subtle differences that become gradually entrenched over time through mechanisms of cultural transmission. Examples include relationships between aspects of the physical environment and lexical (Brown and Lindsey, 2004;Regier et al, 2016) or linguistic sound inventories (Everett, 2013b(Everett, , 2017Maddieson and Coupé, 2015).…”

Investigating diachronic trends in phonological inventories using BDPROTO

“…But they can also be related to socio-cultural, biological, or environmental factors, such as population size, genes, or humidity. Many such factors have been proposed in the literature (e.g., Pericliev 2004;Hay and Bauer 2007;Everett 2013;Greenhill 2014;Everett et al 2015;Maddieson and Coupé 2015;Everett 2017; Benítez-Burraco and Moran 2018) and continue to be hotly debated (e.g., Moran et al 2012;Donohue and Nichols 2011;Greenhill 2016;Roberts 2018;Mendívil-Giró 2018). In the following, we mention just a few candidates for causal factors that shape phonological segment inventories by shaping the directionality of language change.…”

Robust, Causal, and Incremental Approaches to Investigating Linguistic Adaptation

“…Study 2 looks at a continuous measure of tone. Study 3 extends Everett ( 2017 )'s study of humidity and vowel use using two phonological datasets and one phonetic dataset. All data, analysis scripts and results are available in an online repository: https://github.com/seannyD/HumidityToneReplication .…”

“…Since vowels require more precise control of vocal folds than consonants, they should also be relied upon less in drier regions. Accordingly, Everett ( 2017 ) shows that speakers in drier regions use vowels less frequently in their basic vocabulary.…”