It’s been found that altitude has greatly impacted languages that include ejective consonants. The language characteristic developed in these areas is due to the lessened effort the sound requires in thinner air.
Linguists have long believed that environment contributes to vocabulary but stops short of influencing how a language sounds.
New research has revealed that what they thought was wrong.
It’s been found that altitude has greatly impacted languages that include ejective consonants.
Ejective sounds aren’t used in English, but they are present in several languages in the world. They are marked by a distinct glottal stop, one that makes a sharp, explosive noise.
Scholars have discovered a pattern in their geographical occurrence. It appears that in most cases, the languages are used among people living at high altitudes.
Worldwide, 87 percent of languages using ejective consonants are found within about 300 miles of elevated land.
The western areas of both North and South America show particularly dense ejective usage as do parts of East and South Africa.
The working theory is that the language characteristic developed in these areas is due to the lessened effort the sound requires in thinner air.
For this study high altitude was defined as being about 5 thousand feet or more above sea level.
