[lg policy] Are Sounds Of The Caucasus Shaped By The Mountains Themselves?

Tue Jul 9 14:47:00 UTC 2013

 Are Sounds Of The Caucasus Shaped By The Mountains Themselves?

By Richard Solash

July 08, 2013
 In the 10th century, an Arab geographer described the Caucasus region as a
"mountain of tongues." The nickname has stuck to this day, likely because
of how well it captures two of the area's main features: its dramatic
cliffs and its array of languages.

But new and controversial research by a U.S. linguist suggests that the
"mountains" may have more to do with the "tongues" than anyone has guessed.

In *a study<http://www.plosone.org/article/info%253Adoi%252F10.1371%252Fjournal.pone.0065275>
* published last month in the journal "Plos One," Caleb Everett, an
anthropological linguist at the University of Miami, claims that a special
class of sounds occurring in almost all of the languages of the Caucasus
may be due to "the direct influence" of the region's high altitude.
 <http://gdb.rferl.org/2CDBC6E7-E3AB-4785-A8CF-9608F2602DEC_mw1024_n_s.jpg>

Everett's conclusion applies beyond the Caucasus as well. He offers
apparent proof that the rare sounds, known as "ejectives," are far more
likely to occur in regions of high elevation worldwide.

That argument -- and the physical and biological factors that Everett says
may explain the correlation -- are generating plenty of buzz, and a range
of reactions, among linguists.

"The assumption made by linguists is that geography can impact language,
but in sort of superficial ways: If you live in the Amazon, you're not
going to have words for 'snow-capped mountains,'" Everett tells RFE/RL.
"But linguists have traditionally been skeptical that geography can affect
the structure of language, things like phonology -- the sound system -- of
a language. I think this is really good evidence [of that]."

*Hisses, Spits, And Mini-Explosions*

Ejectives, which occur in approximately 20 percent of the world's
languages, are consonants produced when air is compressed in the mouth and
pharyngeal cavity and then released in a burst. Unlike most sounds, they
are not produced using air from the lungs.

For Caucasian languages, many of which are known for their rich inventories
of sounds, ejectives are a characteristic feature.

Linguists and befuddled visitors alike have described these sounds as
hisses, spits, and even mini-explosions in the mouth.

Georgian has six ejectives:
Georgian ejectives

   - Playlist
   - Download<http://realaudio.rferl.org/ENGL/2013/07/07/4dca5a93-d06b-4891-8c7b-b7b92037ee74.mp3>

Circassian may hold the record, with at least 10:
Circassian ejectives

   - Playlist
   - Download<http://realaudio.rferl.org/ENGL/2013/07/07/1b90ac05-5be7-4fc8-9dcb-57d1eaa25c7b.mp3>

The sounds appear in everyday terms, like the word for "bridge" in Chechen:
'Bridge' in Chechen

   - Playlist
   - Download<http://realaudio.rferl.org/ENGL/2013/07/07/b07f87f8-f17f-4a8b-ab3e-41a3bce76add.mp3>

Or "head scarf" in Avar:
'Head scarf' in Avar

   - Playlist
   - Download<http://realaudio.rferl.org/ENGL/2013/07/07/539a14a8-de33-431a-9bde-5957f490bc73.mp3>

In his research, Everett considered the distribution of 567 world languages
in relation to six high-elevation "zones." Those zones were defined as
major regions greater than 1,500 meters in altitude, plus the surrounding
200 kilometers. They included the Caucasus range and the Javakheti plateau,
the Rocky Mountain region in North America, the southern African plateau,
and others.

Of Everett's sample of languages, only a small portion contained ejectives.
However, he found that nearly two-thirds of those that did were located in
the high-altitude zones.

The only zone in which ejectives were absent was the Tibetan plateau. "In
fact it strikes us as remarkable that only one region presents an
exception," Everett writes.

*'Largely Neglected'*

Languages occurring in each zone, from the Caucasus to the Andes, were also
from multiple, often unrelated language families. The Caucasian language
Abkhaz contains ejectives, but so do several dialects of Armenian, a
language from the entirely distinct Indo-European family. Such evidence,
Everett says, goes far in arguing that geography, and not genetic
relations, is behind the trend.

Explaining why such a correlation might exist is a more challenging
proposition. Everett offers his best guesses, albeit tentatively.

"Hypothetically, these sounds should be easier to make at high altitudes
because they require the compression of ambient air," Everett says. "Since
air pressure is lower at higher altitudes, the sounds should be easier to
make. That was my first hypothesis."

He also suggests that use of the sounds may be a biological adaption to the
dryness of high-altitude locations. "Because you don't have to expel air
from the lungs to produce ejective sounds, they should theoretically reduce
the amount of water vapor lost during speech," he says.

Bernard Comrie, the director of the linguistics department at the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, says
Everett may be on to something, at least in showing that a real correlation
exists between altitude and ejectives.

Like others, however, he is more skeptical when it comes to Everett's
suggested explanations, but says they are not "unreasonable."

Comrie also says that the controversy may give linguistic science a
shake-up it needs.

"I think [this research] is important in that it really suggests a way in
which one could seriously investigate a kind of claim that has largely been
neglected by linguists," Comrie says.

"This is a direction they are going to have to consider. So far, linguists
are rather negative toward such generalizations, but more because their
ideological background leads them to be negative, rather than because there
is strong empirical evidence against a particular claim."

http://www.rferl.org/content/language-caucasus-geography-mountains-circassian-georgian-armenian/25039081.html

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