https://www.sciencenews.org/article/rise-farming-altered-our-bite-and-changed-how-people-talk?fbclid=IwAR0VzsGF9eKWlC3KgFTHQ8GG034gFePAml0Qhm5ZKbZtAYllCRr3lqE5t2M
So, farming is to blame for Spanish people’s pronunciation of “cerveza”?
Over the last 6,000 years or so, farming societies increasingly have substituted processed dairy and grain products for tougher-to-chew game meat and wild plants common in hunter-gatherer diets. Switching to those diets of softer, processed foods altered people’s jaw structure over time, rendering certain sounds like “f” and “v” easier to utter, and changing languages worldwide, scientists contend.
People who regularly chew tough foods such as game meat experience a jaw shift that removes a slight overbite from childhood. But individuals who grow up eating softer foods retain that overbite into adulthood, say comparative linguist Damián Blasi of the University of Zurich and his colleagues. Computer simulations suggest that adults with an overbite are better able to produce certain sounds that require touching the lower lip to the upper teeth, the researchers report in the March 15 Science.
Note: I was looking at something about skull shapes a few weeks ago (for my attempts at drawing) and found a whole host of possibilities. In terms of allergies and other olifactory related conditions I got to wondering about how mouth breathing may effect health and mental well-being. Just a random thought as our nasal interaction with the world is a huge part of our neurochemistry being entwined closely with memory to name but one.
