Geography has had a massive linguistic impact by affecting the spread or evolution of languages. Anthropological linguist Caleb Everett discovered a unique way geography could be a factor in phonetics.

He analyzed the geographic location and phonology of 567 world languages. 92 of those languages use ejective non-pulmonic consonants, sounds made by pushing air from the vocal cords instead of from the lungs. 62% of the 92 languages were spoken in a high-altitude region, which means the location was 4,900 feet (or 1,500 meters) above sea level. An additional 18% are spoken near a high-altitude region, for a total of 80% at or near high-altitudes. Of the 475 world languages that do not contain ejective non-pulmonic consonants, only 20% are spoken in high-altitude regions. African languages especially follow this trend even though most of Africa is not a high-altitude region.

Everett gave two possible reasons for this result. In high-altitude regions the air pressure is reduced in the mouth and lungs, so less compression force is needed and it would be easier to produce an ejective sound. He also suggested that dehydration is common in high-altitude areas and people lose water vapor from exhaled breath, especially at high elevations. Ejectives help reduce water vapor loss and could therefore be a biological adaptation to the environment.

When talking about phonetics, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) chart (IPA Chart) will be your best friend. It may appear daunting at first, but the chart is truly helpful when analyzing and categorizing the sounds of a language. Let’s break down its sections:

• Consonants (Pulmonic): Very common consonants made by pushing air out from your lungs while constricting airflow in your vocal tract. When looking at the pulmonic consonant chart:
  • Place of articulation is in columns like Bilabial, which means a sound made by bringing both lips together like the sound [p] in “pie,” or Palatal, which refers to a sound made by placing the tongue against the roof of the mouth like the sound [j] as in “yes.
  • Manner of articulation is in rows like Plosive, a complete closure and release of airflow like the sound [b] in “bye,” or Nasal, airflow through the nose like the sound [m] in “me”.
  • Voiced/Voiceless is within cells with consonants on the right side are voiced while consonants on the left side are voiceless. The sound [b] in “bye” is voiced, meaning your vocal cords vibrate, while the sound [p] in “pie” is voiceless as no vocal cord vibration.
  • Fun fact: Shaded cells in the IPA chart have been deemed impossible sounds to make!
• Consonants (Non-pulmonic): Rarer consonants that don’t use air from the lungs:
  • Ejective consonant sounds are made by pushing air from vocal cords instead of lungs and raising the larynx to make a unique popping sound.
  • Vocal implosives pull air in and lower the larynx to create a gulp-like sound.
  • Clicks use suction to produce lip-smacking or “tsk” sounds.
• Vowels: The higher the vowel is on the chart, the higher your tongue needs to be in your mouth to make that sound. The tongue is positioned close (high) to make the vowel sound [i] as in “see” and positioned open (low) to make the vowel sound [a] in “father.” The tongue is in the front of the mouth for the vowel sound [i] as in “see” and in the back of the mouth for the vowel sound [u] as in “food.” Vowels can also be categorized based on whether the lips are rounded ([u] in “food”) or unrounded ([i] in “see”) during articulation.
  • Fun fact: Vowels are either monophthongs that have one vowel sound that never varies like [i] in “see,” diphthongs that blend two vowel sounds like sounds [e] and [ɪ] to make the sound [eɪ] in “day,” or triphthongs that blend three vowel sounds like [eɪə] in “player.”
• Diacritics: Extra markings that add detail about length or nasalization to modify the sound. Diacritics are rarely used in English and often come with borrowed words like café.
• Suprasegmentals: Speech features that affect words, not just individual sounds. Some common elements are intonation (pitch within a sentence) and stress (like the stress on the first syllable in “mountain.” English often stresses the first syllable of a noun).
• Tones and word accents: Symbols to help transcribe tonal languages like Chinese.

The next time you trek through a high-altitude region, keep your IPA chart on hand and listen for any new linguistic discoveries!

Read more:

International Phonetic Association (IPA) Chart.

Everett C (2013) Evidence for Direct Geographic Influences on Linguistic Sounds: The Case of Ejectives. PLOS ONE 8(6): e65275. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065275.

Than, Ker. “Does Geography Influence How a Language Sounds?” National Geographic, 15 June 2013. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/130614-high-altitude-ejective-language-linguistics.

Stromberg, Joseph. “Do Geography and Altitude Shape the Sounds of a Language?” Smithsonian, 12 June 2013. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/do-geography-and-altitude-shape-the-sounds-of-a-language-104321/#:~:text=When%20Everett%20analyzed%20hundreds%20of%20different%20languages,significantly%20more%20likely%20to%20include%20ejective%20consonants.