Abstract
Human languages use an amazing variety of subtly different speech sounds to convey meaning. With the exception of sign languages that are used and developed by communities of deaf people, all human languages use sound as the primary signal. The sounds, or more accurately the differences between sounds, that humans use for distinguishing meanings can be very subtle. Two different sounds that would be perceived as identical by a speaker of one language might make an important distinction in meaning in another. For example, in the Bahing language of East Nepal, the word /m● r● / means “monkey”, while the word /m● r● means “man”. Speakers of neighboring and European languages alike are generally not able to perceive this distinction, an unlimited source of fun to the Bahing people.
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de Boer, B. (2002). Evolving Sound Systems. In: Cangelosi, A., Parisi, D. (eds) Simulating the Evolution of Language. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0663-0_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0663-0_4
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