气候影响语言：潮湿地区语言的音调更复杂

 have played a role how each one developed.

全世界大约有6500种语言，最新研究显示，气候可能影响了语言的发展。

Scientists have found that humidity in different areas may have influenced the way languages evolved there.

科学家发现，不同地区的湿度可能影响了当地语言的发展。

They found that languages with complex tones - those that use one or more contrasting tones to give meaning to words like Cantonese - tend to occur in humid regions of the world.

他们发现，音调复杂的语言，即像广东话一样通过不同音调赋予词汇意义的语言，大多出现在世界上气候潮湿的地区。

Languages with simple tones, like many European languages including English, are found in drier regions - either in the colder north or in arid deserts.

而音调简单的语言，如包括英语在内的许多欧洲语言，一般都出现在比较干燥的地区，比如寒冷的北方地区或干旱的沙漠。

The researchers say that this is because inhaling dry air can dehydrate the vocal cords and make them less elastic, making it harder to produce complex tones in words.

研究人员指出，这是因为吸入干燥的空气使声带脱水，降低其弹性，从而较难发出词语中的复杂音调。

Instead languages that evolved in dry climates tend to have imprecise pitch and varying intensity.

相反，干燥地区的语言还有音高不准确和强度多变的问题。

Most European languages are thought to originate from a common ancestral tongue called Proto-Indo-European that was spoken 6,000 years ago by people living on the relatively dry Pontic Steppe north of the Black Sea.

大多数欧洲语言被认为起源于6000年前的古印欧语，该语言最初为居住在黑海北部气候干燥的东欧大草原上的人们所使用。

This dry climate may have led to the evolution of the modern non-tonal languages that exist here today, according to Dr Caleb Everett, a linguist at the University of Miami who led the research.

负责该研究的迈阿密大学语言学家Caleb Everett博士认为，这种干燥的气候可能导致其发展成为现如今该地区的无音调语言。

He said: 'It does not imply that languages are completely determined by climate, but that climate can, over the long haul, be one of the factors that helps shape languages.

'More broadly, this suggests another non-conscious way in which humans have adapted to their very different and harsh environments.'

他说：“这并不是说语言完全是由气候决定的，而是从长远来看，气候是影响语言形成和发展的因素之一。更宽泛地说，这也是人类另一种无意识地适应不同恶劣环境的方式。”

Dr Everett and his colleagues, whose research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined more than 3,700 languages.

Everett博士及其同事的一项发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上的研究调查了3700多种语言。

They found 629 languages with complex tones, with most in tropical regions throughout Africa and Southeast Asia, but also some in humid regions of North America, Amazonia and New Guinea.

他们发现，629种音调复杂的语言中，大多数源自非洲和东南亚的热带地区，但也有一些出现在北美洲、亚马逊流域和新几内亚的潮湿地区。

Languages like Vietnamese, Burmese, all of the Chinese languages and most languages from Sub-Saharan Africa like Nigerian and Congolese are considered tonal.

像越南语、缅甸语，汉语和所有的中国方言，尼日利亚语和刚果语等撒哈拉以南非洲地区的大多数语言，都被认为是多音调语言。

Languages like Mongolian, Egyptian and Amdo Tibetan all developed in drier and more arid climates.

像蒙古语、埃及语和安多藏语等语言都源自气候比较干燥和干旱的地区。

To produce speech the human vocal cords, which are a vibrating valve that chops up the airflow from the lungs, need to flex in length and tension to tune the pitch and tone.

人类的声带相当于一个可切断肺部的气息冲击的振动阀，为了发声，它需要对自身的长度和张力进行收缩，从而调整其音高和音调。

It is also thought to be why learning a new language can be difficult at first and require the muscles that control the vocal cords to be trained to make new sounds.

这也是为什么学习一门新语言时入门比较难，因为它要求控制声带的肌肉必须被训练到能发出新的音调。

If the new research is correct it would also suggest that people who live in drier climates may find it harder to make the sounds needed to pronounce words in tonal languages.

如果这项新研究是正确的，那么这也就说明，生活在气候干燥地区的人们较难发出多音调语言词汇中的复杂音调。

Dr Everett added: 'Also, there may be some health benefits to certain sound patterns in certain climates, but more research is needed to establish that in a satisfactory way.'

Everett博士补充说：“另外，某些气候条件下的某些发音模式可能对身体有益，但想要用一种令人满意的方式来证明这一想法的话，我们还需要做更多的研究。”

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