Universality of the simple consonant-vowel (CV) syllable probably reflects its status as a prototype syllable facilitative of oral communication. Previous research has shown that in a world sample of 53 (relatively) independent languages, CV syllables were more frequent in warm than cold climate regions. The rationale proposed for this was that people in warm climates, as inhabitants of outdoor cultures, would on average engage in more distal communication than would people in cold (indoor) climates and that such distal communication would create a need for optimal transmittal of messages—that is, frequent usage of the CV syllable. The present study replicated the previous result within four language families, finding the same trend of higher CV frequency in warm climate areas. A secondary finding in the original investigation, that CV scores for languages with writing systems were lower than those for languages of nonliterate societies, also was upheld in the current study.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Archangeli, D. (1997). Optimality theory: An introduction to linguistics in the 1990s. In D. Archangeli& D. T. Langendoen (Eds.), Optimality theory: An overview(pp. 1-32). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
2.
Befu, H., & Norbeck, E. (1958). Japanese usages of terms of relationship. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 14, 66-86.
3.
Brown, C. H., & Witkowski, S. R. (1980). Appendix B: Language universals. In D. Levinson & M. J. Malone (Eds.), Toward explaining human culture(pp. 359-384). New Haven, CT: HRAF.
4.
Campbell, D. T.,& Fiske, D. W. (1988). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. In E. S. Overman (Ed.), Methodology and epistemology for social science: Selected papers of Donald T. Campbell(pp. 37-61). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1959)
Ember, M., & Ember, C. R. (1997). Cross-language predictors of consonant-vowel syllables. Unpublished manuscript.
7.
Great Britain Meteorological Office. (1970). Tables of temperature, relative humidity and precipitation for the world: Part 5. Asia. London: Air Ministry Meteorological Office. (Original work published 1958)
8.
Greenberg, J. H. (1960). The general classification of Central and South American Languages. In A. W. Wallace (Ed.), Men and cultures: Selected papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, 1956(pp. 791-794). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
9.
Greenberg, J. H. (Ed.). (1966). Universals of language(2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
10.
Howes, D. (1966). A word count of spoken English. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 572-604.
11.
Jakobson, R., & Halle, M. (1968). Phonology in relation to phonetics. In B. Malmberg (Ed.), Manual of phonetics(pp. 411-449). Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing.
12.
Keating, P. (1984). Aerodynamic modeling at UCLA. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, 59, 18-28.
13.
Lebra, T. S. (1974). Reciprocity and the asymmetric principle: An analytical reappraisal of the Japanese concept of on. In T. S. Lebra& W. P. Lebra (Eds.), Japanese culture and behavior: Selected readings(pp. 192-207). Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii.
14.
Lebra, T. S. (1976). Japanese patterns of behavior. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii.
15.
Lebra, T. S. (1993). Above the clouds: Status culture of the modern Japanese nobility. Berkeley: University of California Press.
16.
Liberman, A. M. (1996). Speech: A special code. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
17.
Macaulay, R. (1994). The social art: Language and its uses. New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
Maddieson, I. (1984). Patterns of sounds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
20.
Matisoff, J. A. (1991). Sino-Tibetan linguistics: Present state and future prospects. Annual Review of Anthropology, 20, 469-504.
21.
McNeill, D. (1970). The acquisition of language. NewYork: Harper & Row.
22.
Miller, G. A. (1963). Language and communication. New York: McGraw-Hill.
23.
Munroe, R. L., Munroe, R. H., & Winters, S. (1996). Cross-cultural correlates of the consonant-vowel (CV) syllable. Cross-Cultural Research, 30, 60-83.
24.
Prince, A. S.,& Smolensky, P. (1993). Optimality theory(RuCCs technical report No. 2). Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science.
25.
Steward, J. H., & Faron, L. C. (1959). Native peoples of South America. New York: McGraw-Hill.
26.
Studdert-Kennedy, M. (1976). Speech perception. In N. J. Lass (Ed.), Contemporary issues in experimental phonetics(pp. 243-293). New York: Academic Press.
27.
Swadesh, M. (1952). Lexicostatistic dating of pre-historic ethnic contacts. Proceedings American Philosophical Society, 96, 452-463.
28.
Textor, R. B. (1967). A cross-cultural summary. New Haven, CT: HRAF.
29.
Whiting, J.W.M., Sodergren, J. A., & Stigler, S. M. (1982). Winter temperature as a constraint in the migration of preindustrial peoples. American Anthropologist, 84, 279-298.
30.
Yamagiwa, J. K. (1965). Language as an expression of Japanese culture. In J. W. Hall & R. K. Beardsley, Twelve doors to Japan(pp. 186-221). New York: McGraw-Hill.
31.
Young, R. W., & Morgan, W. Sr. (1987). The Navajo language. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
32.
Zipf, G. K. (1935). The psycho-biology of language. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
