People use language all day everyday. But have we ever really stopped and thought about where language originated? Dr. Quentin Atkinson published a story in Science, which provides significant evidence that Africa is the birthplace of the human language.
According the article analysis of languages from around the world suggest that, like our genes, human speech originated in sub Saharan Africa. “Dr. Atkinson studied the perceptually distinct units of sound that differentiate words, used in 504 human languages today and found that the number of phonemes is highest in Africa and decreases with increasing distance from Africa.” ("Africa the Birthplace of Human Language, Analysis Suggests.")
The fewest phonemes are found in South America and on the tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean. Places with small populations on the edge of expansion tend to lose diversity. Dr. Atkinson states, that the pattern of phoneme usage around the world mirrors the pattern of human genetic diversity. Which declines as humans expanded their range from Africa and other regions. Africa was the origin of modern languages and has shaped genetic and linguistic diversity among all human beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment