An analysis of over 500 contemporary languages has demonstrated that the number of speech sounds in a language decreases systematically ____.
A)with the level of education of the population
B)with the culture's distance from Africa along migration routes
C)according to the cultural values embedded in the language
D)with the level of assimilation into larger cultures

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Research has shown that languages spoken further away from Africa (where modern humans are thought to have originated) have fewer speech sounds. This is believed to be due to a process called "phonemic simplification," where languages gradually lose complex speech sounds over time as they are passed down through generations. As humans migrated out of Africa and settled in new areas, their languages underwent this process of simplification, resulting in languages with fewer speech sounds.

An Analysis of Over 500 Contemporary Languages Has Demonstrated That