Many factors influence our languages and accents — where we live, where we grew up, what our parents sounded like. But in recent years, researchers have been investigating another possible influence — climate.
The idea that climate affects language is not new, but only recently have researchers had the tools to properly investigate the hypothesis. Now, large databases of languages from around the world, coupled with the computing power to look for patterns in those languages and match those with climate data, are making it possible to see whether climate influences language and, if so, how.
How Environment Affects Language
Caleb Everett, an anthropologist who studies language across the world’s cultures, says that linguists generally agree that in languages, there is a bias toward what experts call “articulatory ease.” In other words, we tend to use sounds that are easy to make. But what’s easy to make can depend on environmental conditions. Some sounds are more difficult to make if the vocal cords are very dry. (That’s why singers take care to prevent their vocal cords from drying out, he points out.)
In a 2017 paper, Everett and colleagues analyzed thousands of languages from two databases and found support for the idea that languages in very dry places rely less on vowels than languages in humid areas.
More recently, research published in 2023 analyzed data from more than 1,000 languages and found that languages in hot areas relied more on vowels, and those in humid areas employed more complex tonal sounds. Meanwhile, languages spoken at higher altitudes used more ejective consonants. These are little explosions made when the vocal folds are closed, explains Ian Maddieson, linguist and senior author on the 2023 paper.
Forest cover plays a role as well. A lot of the inspiration for this work came from studies on birdsong, says Maddieson. One of the variables that predict the complexity of birdsong is the relative complexity of the local vegetation, he explains.
“If there is an area with a lot of obstructive plants, the song is simplified because transmission through that kind of environment is less effective and will disrupt a complex song that has a lot of trills and changes,” says Maddieson. In dense vegetation and high humidity, simple is more effective.
Read More: Language Evolves Over Time and Islands Can Drive Linguistic Diversity
Human Migration and the Evolution of Language
The mobility of humans in the last 50 to 100 years, however, means that other factors may soon swamp the effect of climate, says Maddieson. Again, birds offer an interesting parallel. When birds move into an urban area with a lot of background noise, they have to change their songs to be heard over the din of the city. They either simplify the song so it’s less masked by the sound, or they sing at a higher pitch to be heard above the traffic noise.
And like birdsong, human language changes when people of many different languages live in one location and try to make themselves understood.
“People coming together with different language backgrounds and arriving at some sort of compromise between inputs from the different languages could have such a strong impact on the future of so many languages that it may be very hard to detect the other kinds of effects, such as that of climate,” says Maddieson.
Read More: When Did Humans Evolve Language?
Will Climate Change Alter Our Voices?
Does the fact that the climate is changing mean human speech will change in response? Possibly. Maddieson estimates that it could take 300 to 500 years for vocal adaptations to climate to become a part of a language. That means that after 300 or 400 years of climate change, speech patterns around the world could be noticeably different.
Over time, Maddieson says, if these theories are correct, basic changes in environmental conditions would have an impact on languages.
However, he adds, “If the planet keeps warming as much as it is at the moment, there won’t be any people in large parts of the world.”
Read More: A New Look At Our Linguistic Roots
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Anthropologist who studies language at University of Miami. Caleb Everett
PNAS. Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: Connecting the physiological and geographic dots
Frontiers in Psychology. Demonstrating environmental impacts on the sound structure of languages: challenges and solutions
Linguist who studies phonetic diversity. Ian Maddieson
Avery Hurt is a freelance science journalist. In addition to writing for Discover, she writes regularly for a variety of outlets, both print and online, including National Geographic, Science News Explores, Medscape, and WebMD. She’s the author of Bullet With Your Name on It: What You Will Probably Die From and What You Can Do About It, Clerisy Press 2007, as well as several books for young readers. Avery got her start in journalism while attending university, writing for the school newspaper and editing the student non-fiction magazine. Though she writes about all areas of science, she is particularly interested in neuroscience, the science of consciousness, and AI–interests she developed while earning a degree in philosophy.
