Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 15 March 2019
The way you speak now was shaped by what your ancestors ate

CHRISTINA LARSON — which was hard work on spoken from Iceland to In-
AP Science Writer our jaws and teeth. Stone dia — and charted how
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Age adult skulls don't look the "f'' and "v'' sounds ap-
way most of us speak today like modern skulls. These peared in a rising number
is shaped in part by how older skulls have upper of languages over time. As
long ago our ancestors and lower teeth closing di- more societies developed
gave up chewing tough, rectly on top of each oth- agriculture and traded in
raw meat. er — whereas today most raw meat for softer fare —
It's widely known that lan- people have some degree whether it's cooked meat
guages evolve as societ- of overbite, with the front and potatoes, or rice and
ies develop and change, teeth extending in front stewed vegetables — these
but the sounds we utter are of bottom teeth when the sounds became more
also shaped, literally, by mouth is closed. common, the researchers
the placement of our jaw "If you are raised on softer found.
— and that is influenced foods, you don't have the "New sounds get intro-
by how we chew our food, same kind of wear and duced into languages, and
researchers report Thursday tear on your bite that your then are more widely ad-
in the journal Science. ancestors had, so you keep opted," said Steven Moran,
Language study often fo- an overbite," said Bickel. also a linguist at the Univer-
cuses on cultural factors, Eating softer foods not only sity of Zurich and co-author
"but our work shows that sets the jaw in a different of the paper.
language is also a biologi- fashion, but also changes The notion that agriculture
cal phenomenon — you This Jan. 8, 2003 file photo shows a reconstructed Neanderthal which sounds are easily shaped language was
skeleton, right, and a modern human version of a skeleton, left,
can't fully separate culture on display at the Museum of Natural History in New York. pronounced. In particular, first suggested decades
and biology," said Balthasar Associated Press it becomes much easier ago by American linguist
Bickel, a linguist at the Uni- to say "f'' and "v," which Charles Hockett, but he did
versity of Zurich and co-au- istence today — to identify changed the types of linguists call "labiodental" not attempt to prove it.
thor of the new study. which sounds were more sounds being incorporated sounds. Elan Dresher, a linguist at
The researchers analyzed and less frequently used, into languages," Noreen (Try it. Put your upper and the University of Toronto
Stone Age and modern and where. von Cramon-Taubadel, an lower incisors — or "front who was not involved in
skulls and created simu- Languages spoken by evolutionary anthropologist teeth" — directly on top of the study, commended
lations of how different groups with hunter-gather- at the University of Buffalo each other and try say "fa- testing Hockett's theory,
jaw placements allow our er societies in their more re- who was not involved in the vor." It's difficult.) but said the research could
mouths to make different cent past are far less likely study, wrote in an email. The researchers looked be fine-tuned by looking at
sounds. They analyzed a to use consonants used by Before societies cultivat- closely at 52 languages historical reconstructions of
database of roughly 2,000 longtime farming societies, ed crops and learned to from what is called the languages, rather than us-
languages — more than a the study found. cook food, early humans Indo-European language ing language databases to
quarter of languages in ex- "Our anatomy actually chewed tough raw meat group — including dialects make comparisons.q

Indian Ocean science mission recovers key underwater drone

By DAVID KEYTON and JER- had caused scientific data plored ocean can kick into
RY HARMER collection to stop while ef- high gear.
Associated Press forts focused on its retrieval. In a message to the mission
ALPHONSE ISLAND, Sey- The mission is on an un- on Thursday, the United
chelles (AP) — A British-led precedented exploration Nations special envoy for
marine scientific mission off of the Indian Ocean to the ocean, Peter Thomson,
the Seychelles succeeded document changes taking noted the "seminal impor-
on Thursday in retrieving a place beneath the waves tance" of such work.
key underwater drone from that could affect billions of "The ocean is in deep trou-
the sea bed, where it had people in the surrounding ble," he wrote, "largely as
fallen after its cable was region over the coming de- a result of continuing plan-
cut two days ago. cades. etary warming arising from
The camera-carrying drone Mission director Oliver our greenhouse gas emis-
is a vital piece of equip- Steeds was relieved that sions. We will be depend-
ment for the Nekton Mission the mission could now con- ing on global consensus on
Submersibles sent to recover an ROV (Remotely Operated scientists as they explore tinue after the retrieval ef- scientific findings to be the
Vehicle) lost off the coast of the tiny island of Alphonse the Indian Ocean depths. forts had battled strong basis of our agreements
Seychelles, Wednesday March 13, 2019. Two recovery attempts on currents. on solutions and actions
Associated Press Wednesday failed. The mission has faced a necessary to reverse the
Pilot Jimmy Boesen called number of mishaps: Bad cycle of decline in which
the success a welcome weather forced a change the ocean's health is cur-
relief after two sleepless of course. Fierce underwa- rently caught." The Associ-
nights: "The mission is 50 ter currents have buffeted ated Press is the only news
percent not done if we the submersibles, aborting agency working with British
didn't get it done. So it's a dives. scientists from the Nekton
good one." The scientists on board the research team on its deep-
The loss of the Remotely Ocean Zephyr now hope sea mission. board and
Operated Vehicle, capa- their luck has changed and aerial footage. The seven-
ble of reaching a depth that their mission to docu- week expedition is expect-
of 500 meters (1,640 feet), ment the world's least-ex- ed to run until April 19.q