bibliolater, 6 months ago

"We analyze the average sonority of basic words of nearly three-quarters of the world’s languages, and confirm a positive correlation between sonority and local temperature. Our findings suggest that lower temperatures, over the course of many centuries, lead to decreased sonority. Our research provides further evidence that climate plays a role in shaping the evolution of human languages."

Tianheng Wang, Søren Wichmann, Quansheng Xia, Qibin Ran, Temperature shapes language sonority: Revalidation from a large dataset, PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 12, December 2023, pgad384, https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/12/pgad384/7457938 #OpenAccess #OA #Journal #Article #Language #Languages #Environment #Climate #Evolution #Anthropology #Academia #Academic @anthropology