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Thank you to Brilliant for sponsoring this whole week of SciShow!
感谢Brilliant对本周《科学秀》的赞助！
Humans have been talking to each other for hundreds of thousands of years.
几十万年来，人类一直在彼此对话。
And for the most part, researchers have assumed we've all been making the same basic sounds, no matter what language we're speaking.
研究人员认为我们发出的音在很大程度上基本相同，不论我们说的是哪国语言。
We're all working with the same equipment, after all. But a new study says that that is not the case.
毕竟，我们都是用嘴巴说话。但一项新研究表示并非如此。
It claims that back before we developed agriculture, our teeth and jaws were different
它宣称在发展农业以前，我们的牙齿和颌是不同的
because we were chewing tough, fibrous foods, and that meant some sounds were harder to make.
因为之前我们咀嚼的是坚硬的纤维食物，这意味着一些声音难以出发来。
Let's just say early hunter-gatherers weren't going around saying "fee fi fo fum" or "veni, vedi, vici."
比如说早期采集狩猎的人发不出“fee fi fo fum”或“veni, vedi, vici”的音。
According to this new research, humans have only recently made "f" and "v" sounds since they started eating softer foods,
根据这项新研究，人类在近期开始才能发出“f”和“v”的音，因为人类从那时才开始食用较为柔软的食物，
so in the last 10,000 years or so. This actually isn't a new idea. The hypothesis was first proposed by linguist Charles Hockett in 1985.
在过去的一万多年都是如此。这并非一种新想法。这种假设在1985年由语言学家查理斯·霍凯特首次提出。
You see, scientists have generally assumed that the language-producing toolbox of humans hasn't really changed for about half a million years.
要知道，科学家通常假设人类的语言产生工具箱在约五十万年的时间中都没有发生真正的变化。
As a result, you should expect to find roughly the same sounds in all languages.
因此，你应该能够在所有语言中发现大略相同的声音。
The easier a sound is to produce, the more often it should pop up.
一个声音越容易发出，它出现的次数就越多。
According to linguists, the differences between the thousands of world languages mostly resulted
语言学家表示，世界上数千种语言之间的差别大部分源于
from things like tiny pronunciation mistakes that spread culturally.
文化传播中出现的细微发音错误。
Differences could even relate to geography, as certain sounds are easier to make at higher elevations.
这些区别甚至和地理位置有关，因为一些声音在高海拔地区更容易发出。
But Charles Hockett put one more explanation on the table: diet.
但是查理斯·霍凯特又提出了一种解释：饮食。
He noticed that the languages of modern hunter-gatherer societies lacked labiodentals.
他注意到现代狩猎采集社会所使用的语言中没有唇齿音。
Those are sounds produced by touching or nearly touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth, like consonants like f and v in English.
唇齿音由下嘴唇和上齿摩擦发出的声音，比如英语中的辅音 f 和 v。
That led him to think differences between languages might actually come from how the food we eat affects the way we bite.
所以他认为语言之间的差别可能来自食物对我们咬颌方式的影响。
Both hominid fossils and modern hunter-gatherers have what he called an edge bite,
原始人类化石和现代狩猎采集者都有边缘咬合，
where the top teeth lay directly on top of the bottom teeth, touching edge-to-edge.
上齿直接抵在下齿顶部，边对边接触。
In childhood, humans start out with their top teeth overlapping their bottom teeth in a small overbite, or what Hockett called a scissors bite.
童年时期，人类的上齿开始与下齿重叠形成小范围覆咬合，或者是霍凯特所说的剪刀式咬合。
But over time, tough foods wear teeth down, and to compensate for that loss, the teeth start to drift inward, leading to an edge bite.
但随时间流逝，坚硬的食物磨损了牙齿，为了弥补这一磨损，牙齿开始向内偏移，形成边缘咬颌。
And if your top and bottom teeth align perfectly, it's harder to get your bottom lip into the position where "f" or a "v" sound is possible.
如果你的上下牙齿能够完美排列，则更难发出“f”和“v”这两种音。
But according to Hockett, agriculture changed all that.
但霍凯特表示，农业改变了所有。
We started eating less meat and more grains, and cooking came into the picture.
我们饮食中的谷物越来越少，并开始了烹饪。
Softer food meant less wear and therefore helped humans keep their childlike overbite into adulthood.
更柔软的食物意味着更少的磨损，因此帮助了人类保持童年的覆咬合直至成年。
Scientists at the time didn't buy Hockett's hypothesis.
那时的科学家并不认可霍凯特的假设。
They didn't think that wear and tear could make that big of a difference to the human bite.
他们认为磨损不会对人类咬颌造成那么大的不同。
Plus, archaeological evidence back then said that the timeline didn't add up: overbites appeared much later than agriculture did.
再加上，那时的考古证据表明时间线不合情理：覆咬合出现的时间比农业更晚。
In the end, Hockett backtracked on the idea, agreeing that the timing was an issue.
最终，霍凯特放弃了这一想法并同意时间是个问题。
But research since has shown that wear can change a person's bite dramatically,
但是后来的研究表明磨损可以对人类咬颌造成巨大改变，
and it's now well established that overbites became more common after the rise of agriculture in the Neolithic era.
现在已确认在新石票代，覆咬合在农业兴起后变得更加普遍。
But a change in bite doesn't necessarily mean a change in language. You would need more research to make that connection.
但是咬颌的改变并不一定意味着语言的改变。还需要更多研究才能将它们联系起来。
So that's exactly what an international team did for the new study published last week in the journal Science.
所以一直国际团队做了这些研究并在上周发表于《科学》杂志期刊。
First, they created a 3D simulation of the human mouth and jaw to see if an overbite really did make labiodentals easier.
首先，他们做了一个3D仿真人类牙齿和颌以观察覆咬合是否真的会让唇齿音更容易发出。
It did: it takes about 29% less energy to make an "f" sound with an overbite than it does with an edge bite.
确实如此：相比边缘咬合，用覆咬合发出“f”要少费29%的力气。
Next, they created a statistical model that showed that modern hunter-gatherer societies
接下来，他们做了一个展现现代狩猎社会的统计模型
only had about 27% as many labiodentals in their languages as agricultural societies.
和农耕社会相比，他们的语言中仅存在约27%的唇齿音。
And historically, they found that the statistical likelihood of a language having labiodentals increased over time,
从历史角度来看，他们发现从几千年前开始，一种拥有唇齿音的语言，它的统计可能性随时间变化而增加了，
starting several thousand years ago, around the same time that things like dairy and cultivated grains became popular.
约在同一时期内，像牛奶和种植谷物这样的食物变得越来越受欢迎。
And they became really common about 2500 years ago, when industrial milling became a thing in places like Europe.
它们在约2500年前就很普遍了，当时工业碾磨在欧洲这样的地方很受欢迎。
They also looked at how these sounds appeared in those languages.
他们还观察了这些声音在那些语言中的出现形式。
Because a lot of language changes happen by accident,
因为很多语言的变化都是意外，
they figured that labiodentals would end up replacing sounds that require a similar mouth position.
他们发现唇齿音最后会替换掉那些需要类似发声位置的声音。
They put their money on bilabials, sounds like "p" and "m" that require you to bring your lips together.
他们的“money”是发双唇音的，双唇音是像“p”和“m”这些需要双唇紧闭才能发出的声音。
If a culture began speaking their language with an edge bite and then developed an overbite over time,
如果一种文化开始用边缘咬颌的方式说话，那么随时间流逝，会形成覆咬合，
it's understandable that a "p" sound might start to become an "f" sound here and there.
也就可以理解“p”音开始变成了“f”音。
Sure enough, they found a lot of labiodentals where bilabials had once been.
果然，他们在双唇音中发现了很多唇齿音。
Like, the Italian "p" is related to the English "f", which in part explains how "padre" became "father."
比如，在意大利语中，“p”发英语中“f”的音，所以“padre”成了“father”。
Not everyone embraces these findings, though.
虽然，不是每个人都接受这些发现。
Some of the objections echo those from Hockett's time,
一些反对声和霍凯特那个时代的那些人相附和，
saying that the researchers might be overstating how much diet can really affect language.
他们表示研究人员可能夸大了饮食对语言的影响。
Others say that it relies on a lot of untested assumptions,
其他人称该研究过多的依赖于未经证实的假设，
including the idea that the use of agriculture is a good shorthand for a society's diet.
包括农业生产的使用是一个社会饮食的缩影，这种想法。
But the biggest elephant in this room is the fact that tracing language differences to physical differences
但最大的问题是追踪语言差异到物质差异
often leads to ethnocentrism or flat-out racism, something linguistics has had trouble with in the past.
经常会引起民族优越感或彻头彻尾的种族主义，过去语言学家都遇上过这些问题。
That's not a reason to abandon the results entirely, just a reason to treat them with extra care.
这并不是完全舍弃这些结果的原因，而是需要格外小心应对的一个理由。
The researchers stand by their data, though, and say their study shows that everything humans do happens in the context of how they live.
虽然研究人员支持他们的数据并表示他们的研究表明了人类所做的一切事情都发生在他们所生活的条件背景下。
They've reiterated that they're not claiming that physiology is the only predictor of language,
他们重申，他们并不是说生理学是语言的唯一预言者，
they just think it should get more credit, like it does for other human traits.
他们只是认为它应该获得更多认可，就像是其他人类特质一样。
Basically, there's no reason language and speech should be an exception.
语言和演讲基本不应是个例外。
In this study, the researchers used statistical models to show that diet probably influences the sounds we make.
在这个研究中，研究人员利用统计模型展现了饮食可能影响我们发出的声音。
And if you want to really understand the math that led them to that conclusion,
如果你真的想了解该结论中的数学，
you might like this course on Probability from Brilliant.org.
你或许会喜欢Brilliant.org的Probability 课程。
The course takes you from rolling dice to modeling the weather,
这门课将讲述摇滚骰子和建立天气模型，
all the while explaining the math that lets us determine whether an outcome is 'likely'.
直到解释清楚那个让我们决定一种结果可能性的数学难题。
If you want to learn something quick every day, you might try your hand at their Daily Challenges.
如果你想每天快速学点什么，你应该试试他们的每日挑战。
Every day, Brilliant puts out a set of problems to challenge your brain.
Brilliant每天都会出一套题挑战你的大脑。
And to solve them, you really have to apply your knowledge of things like statistics, logic, and science.
要解决这些难题，你需要运用各种知识，比如统计、逻辑和科学。
And right now, the first 200 people to go sign up at Brilliant.org/SciShow will get 20% off the annual Premium subscription,
现在，前200名注册Brilliant.org/SciShow的观众将获得20%的年度会费优惠，
so you can view all of the Daily Challenges in the archives and unlock their dozens of problem-solving courses.
这样你就可以看到所有的每日挑战并解锁他们的解题课程。
You can learn, test yourself, and support SciShow all at the same time. That sounds pretty great!
你可以学习，测试，同时也是支持《科学秀》。这听起来很棒！
