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Life of p : a consonant older than speech
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Lameira, Adriano R. and Moran, Steven (2023) Life of p : a consonant older than speech. BioEssays, 45 (4). 2200246. doi:10.1002/bies.202200246 ISSN 0265-9247.
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WRAP-Life-of-p-consonant-older-than-speech-Lameira-2023.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download (126Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202200246
Abstract
Which sounds composed the first spoken languages? Archetypal sounds are not phylogenetically or archeologically recoverable, but comparative linguistics and primatology provide an alternative approach. Labial articulations are the most common speech sound, being virtually universal across the world's languages. Of all labials, the plosive ‘p’ sound, as in ‘Pablo Picasso’, transcribed /p/, is the most predominant voiceless sound globally and one of the first sounds to emerge in human infant canonical babbling. Global omnipresence and ontogenetic precocity imply that /p/-like sounds could predate the first major linguistic diversification event(s) in humans. Indeed, great ape vocal data support this view, namely, the only cultural sound shared across all great ape genera is articulatorily homologous to a rolling or trilled /p/, the ‘raspberry’. /p/-like labial sounds represent an ‘articulatory attractor’ among living hominids and are likely among the oldest phonological features to have ever emerged in linguistic systems.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QL Zoology Q Science > QM Human anatomy |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | |||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Labiality (Phonetics) , Anthropological linguistics, Animal communication, Phonetics | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | BioEssays | |||||||||
| Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons Ltd. | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 0265-9247 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | April 2023 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 45 | |||||||||
| Number: | 4 | |||||||||
| Article Number: | 2200246 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1002/bies.202200246 | |||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 February 2023 | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 24 February 2023 | |||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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