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

• Main Authors: Blasi, D. E., Moran, S., Moisik, Scott Reid, Widmer, P., Dediu, D., Bickel, B.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics; Tooth Wear; Dental Pathology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151609
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

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...