Sound mechanics of language
1. Words are basically strings of sound frequencies travelling through air to ear.
2. Sound travel through media (like air) to reach ear at a distance.
3. High frequency consonants are prone to loss and distortion in media obstacles such as dense vegetation, rough terrain, reflection etc as compared Low frequency vowel sounds.
4. According to linguists Ian Maddieson of the University of New Mexico and Christophe Coupé of the Laboratoire Dynamique de Langage-CNRS in France, is why language spoken in warm, wet and heavily wooded areas tend to use more vowels and fewer consonants and mostly in simple syllables.
Summary:
High Frequency > Consonant sound like f, p or t > Get lost easily in their travel > Spoken in Georgian (Caucasus mountain region) > Cluttered syllables. (consonant heavy languages, strung together into clusters creating syllables too complex)
Low Frequency > Vowel sound like e, o and u > tend to travel long > Spoken in Pacific island & SE Asia > Simple syllables. (spoken in warm, wet, heavy wooded areas, tend to use more vowels, few consonants, simple syllables)
Note:
1. Number of cycles per unit time is called frequency.
2. Wavelength is the distance in space required to complete a full cycle of a frequency.
The wavelength of a sound is the inverse of it's frequency,
3. Higher frequency, shorter wavelength. e.g. 20,000 Hz frequency/Wavelength is 0.68 in or 1.72 cm
4. Lower frequency, longer wavelength. e.g. 20 Hz frequency's Wavelength is 56.5 ft or 17.22 m
Acoustic adaptation hypothesis
Propounded by biologist E.S.Morton in 1975 is about the idea that animal species adapt their vocalizations to get most out of the local acoustics.
Morton in a study noticed that in woodland areas, where trees might muffle or distort bird songs, birds tend to sing songs made up of lower frequencies, with less variation, than birds in open areas.
Phonology relates to environment
Biologists have noticed that birds in some cities are adapting their songs to be heard amid the background noise of the urban life.
Maddieson and Coupé in their presentation to The Acoustic Society of America at it's 170th meeting this week in Jacksonville Florida, wrote, "Our research shows a significant pattern of the same kind among human languages."
Article was prepared after thankfully consulting and quoting researches from:
1. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/
2. http://acousticalsociety.org/
1. Words are basically strings of sound frequencies travelling through air to ear.
2. Sound travel through media (like air) to reach ear at a distance.
3. High frequency consonants are prone to loss and distortion in media obstacles such as dense vegetation, rough terrain, reflection etc as compared Low frequency vowel sounds.
4. According to linguists Ian Maddieson of the University of New Mexico and Christophe Coupé of the Laboratoire Dynamique de Langage-CNRS in France, is why language spoken in warm, wet and heavily wooded areas tend to use more vowels and fewer consonants and mostly in simple syllables.
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| Ian Maddieson http://www.unm.edu/~ianm/index.html# |
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| Christophe Coupé http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/annuaires/index.asp?Langue=EN&Page=Christophe%20COUPE |
High Frequency > Consonant sound like f, p or t > Get lost easily in their travel > Spoken in Georgian (Caucasus mountain region) > Cluttered syllables. (consonant heavy languages, strung together into clusters creating syllables too complex)
Low Frequency > Vowel sound like e, o and u > tend to travel long > Spoken in Pacific island & SE Asia > Simple syllables. (spoken in warm, wet, heavy wooded areas, tend to use more vowels, few consonants, simple syllables)
Note:
1. Number of cycles per unit time is called frequency.
2. Wavelength is the distance in space required to complete a full cycle of a frequency.The wavelength of a sound is the inverse of it's frequency,
3. Higher frequency, shorter wavelength. e.g. 20,000 Hz frequency/Wavelength is 0.68 in or 1.72 cm
4. Lower frequency, longer wavelength. e.g. 20 Hz frequency's Wavelength is 56.5 ft or 17.22 m
Acoustic adaptation hypothesis
Propounded by biologist E.S.Morton in 1975 is about the idea that animal species adapt their vocalizations to get most out of the local acoustics.
Morton in a study noticed that in woodland areas, where trees might muffle or distort bird songs, birds tend to sing songs made up of lower frequencies, with less variation, than birds in open areas.
Phonology relates to environment
Biologists have noticed that birds in some cities are adapting their songs to be heard amid the background noise of the urban life.
Maddieson and Coupé in their presentation to The Acoustic Society of America at it's 170th meeting this week in Jacksonville Florida, wrote, "Our research shows a significant pattern of the same kind among human languages."
Article was prepared after thankfully consulting and quoting researches from:
1. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/
2. http://acousticalsociety.org/
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