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Living in the mountains can change the way you speak
Living at high altitudes can change the way people speak and may help to explain why different languages have evolved around the world.
Scientists have found that languages that use "ejective" consonants – rapid bursts of air exhaled while making a sound – tend to be spoken at higher altitudes.
Ejective consonants are not used in the English language, but may be easier to produce in thin mountain air, the researchers believe.
It is some of the first evidence for how geography can influence the sounds produced in a language.
Previously it was thought that the environment only shaped vocabulary by providing physical barriers between populations that led to different meanings being attached to words.
The researchers, however, found that 87 per cent of languages that use ejectives were found within 300 miles of an area of high altitude.
As the height of the land increased, so did the use of ejectives.
Dr Caleb Everett, who led the study at the college of arts and sciences at the University of Miami, said: "This is really strong evidence that geography does influence phonology – the sound system of languages.
"I was really surprised when I looked at the data and saw that it correlated so well.
"Ejectives are produced by creating a pocket of air in the pharynx and then compressing it.
"Since air pressure decreases with altitude and it takes less effort to compress less dense air, I speculate that it's easier to produce these sounds at high altitude."
In the study, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE, Dr Everett examined 600 languages from around the world, 92 of which had ejectives.
He found that ejectives were used in languages spoken on, or near, five out of six major high altitude regions where people live.
Most of the inhabitable high altitude areas of the world are found in six regions: the Andes, the Andean altiplano, the North American Cordillera, the southern African Plateau, the east African rift plateau, the Ethiopian highlands, the Caucasus range, the Javakehit plateau and the Tibetan plateau.
The only region where ejective languages were absent was the Tibetan plateau. This could be because people living in the region have become uniquely adapted to the low oxygen at high altitudes.
Studies have shown that Tibetan people breath at a faster rate than other high altitude populations and they have also been found to make more efficient use of the oxygen in the air.
Dr Everett believes the findings may help to explain why such a diverse array of different sounds in languages have evolved around the world.
In some parts of the world, for example, whistled language is used and scientists have speculated this could be because whistles travel further in difficult terrain.
Dr Everett said: "The results of the study suggest that ecological factors may shape the structure of language in ways that have gone unrecognized."
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