Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: connecting the physiological and geographic dots

PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) • Vol/Iss. 112 • Published In • Pages: 1322-1327 •
By Everett, Caleb, Blasi, Damian E., Roberts, Sean G.

Abstract

Utilizing two independently-coded databases representing 3700+ languages, authors investigate whether cold ecologies or otherwise-desiccated ecologies are less amenable to complex tonality in language. Languages with complex tonality are primarily found to be located in tropical regions and generally absent in desiccated environments, regardless of latitude.
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: Christina Carolus  milagro.escobar