Human Language Arose in Southern Africa, First-of-its-Kind Analysis Suggests

  • April 21, 2011
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  • Blog

A new study offers evidence that all human language arose in Africa. Quentin Atkinson, a psychologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the leader of this study, focused on analyzing phonemes, the smallest units of sound that allow us to distinguish one word from another.

Out of the 504 of the world’s languages studied, Atkinson found that Africa had the most diverse set of phonemes. As he moved farther away from Africa, he noticed a decrease in the diversity of phonemes.

Up until this study, most researchers had only been looking at word structure and grammar to track the history of language; however, studying phonemes allows researchers to break down languages even further.

To read the complete report from The Washington Post, please click here.

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Source: Link