Phonemes

Phonemes in languages around the world

Part 1

A migration of peoples does not only affect the progenitor words or usage or development of new words but also the sound of words.  

An article published in “The Daily Mail” in England (April 17, 2011) , states that every human language evolved from a single prehistoric African mother tongue. The basis for this theory is that as languages developed further and further around the globe from that central point, the fewer distinct sounds there were in each new language.

After studying 500 languages, Dr Quentin Atkinson (University of Auckland) found that “Every language in the world - from English to Mandarin - evolved from a prehistoric 'mother tongue' first spoken in Africa tens of thousands of years ago. 

The findings don't just pinpoint the origin of language to Africa - they also show that speech evolved at least 100,000 years ago, far earlier than previously thought,” and there is now compelling evidence that the first modern humans evolved in Africa around 200,000 to 150,000 years ago.

Around 70,000 years ago, these early humans began to migrate from the continent, eventually spreading around the rest of the world and although most scientists agree with this 'Out of Africa' theory, they are less sure when our ancestors began to talk.

Some have argued that language evolved independently in different parts of the world, while others say it evolved just once, and that all languages are descended from a single ancestral mother tongue. Dr Atkinson, of Auckland University, has now come up with fascinating evidence for a single African origin of language.

In a paper published April 17, 2011 in Science, he said that after counting the number of distinct sounds, or phonemes, used in 504 languages from around the world and charting them on a map, the number of sounds varies hugely from language to language. English, for instance has around 46 sounds, some languages in South America have fewer than 15, while the San bushmen of South Africa use a staggering 200.

Dr Atkinson found that the number of distinct sounds in a language tends to increase the closer it is to sub-Saharan Africa. He argues that these differences reflect the patterns of migration of our ancestors when they left Africa 70,000 years ago. (Cro-Magnon man, our most recent ancestor, appeared about 35,000 to 30,000 years ago)

How does this study translate to our soon to be migration to the planets and eventually the stars? 

Simply put, languages change as they are handed down from generation to generation. Dr. Atkinson’s study has shown this. The early colonists will not be numerous in numbers for many decades to come, perhaps centuries, and this limited sampling of human language will undergo a metamorphosis as time progresses.

Just as the inhabitants of the sub-Saharan Africa left their societies thousands of years before, and lost distinct sounds of their language as they did so, it is logical to assume that the colonial inhabitants of our near future will also witness these linguistic changes as well. 

In a large population, languages are likely to be relatively stable - simply because there are more people to remember what previous generations did, he says.

But in a smaller population - such as a splinter group that sets off to find a new home elsewhere - there are more chances that languages will change quickly and that sounds will be lost from generation to generation.

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