Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration.

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0404511 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1095-9203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00368075 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Science

Publication: : Washington, DC : American Association for the Advancement of Science
Original Publication: New York, N.Y. : [s.n.] 1880-

Biological Evolution* ; Bite Force* ; Speech Acoustics*; Food-Processing Industry/*history ; Linguistics/*history ; Overbite/*history; Anthropology ; Biomechanical Phenomena ; Farms/history ; Feeding Behavior ; Food Handling ; History, Ancient ; Humans ; Lip/anatomy & histology ; Mandible/anatomy & histology ; Maxilla/anatomy & histology ; Overbite/epidemiology ; Sound ; Tooth/anatomy & histology

Linguistic diversity, now and in the past, is widely regarded to be independent of biological changes that took place after the emergence of Homo sapiens We show converging evidence from paleoanthropology, speech biomechanics, ethnography, and historical linguistics that labiodental sounds (such as "f" and "v") were innovated after the Neolithic. Changes in diet attributable to food-processing technologies modified the human bite from an edge-to-edge configuration to one that preserves adolescent overbite and overjet into adulthood. This change favored the emergence and maintenance of labiodentals. Our findings suggest that language is shaped not only by the contingencies of its history, but also by culturally induced changes in human biology.
(Copyright © 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Comment in: Science. 2019 Mar 15;363(6432):1131. (PMID: 30872497)

Date Created: 20190316 Date Completed: 20190812 Latest Revision: 20190812

20240829

10.1126/science.aav3218

30872490