Evidence is reviewed for widespread phonological and phonetic tendencies in contemporary languages. The evidence is based largely on the frequency of sound types in word lists and in phoneme inventories across the world's languages. The data reviewed point to likely tendencies in the languages of the Upper Palaeolithic. These tendencies include the reliance on specific nasal and voiceless stop consonants, the relative dispreference for posterior voiced consonants and the use of peripheral vowels. More tenuous hypotheses related to prehistoric languages are also reviewed. These include the propositions that such languages lacked labiodental consonants and relied more heavily on vowels, when contrasted to many contemporary languages. Such hypotheses suggest speech has adapted to subtle pressures that may in some cases vary across populations. This article is part of the theme issue 'Reconstructing prehistoric languages'.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8059574 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0195 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Health security-Why is 'public health' not enough?
Glob Health Res Policy
January 2025
Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
There is a growing tendency in global discourse to describe a health issue as a security issue. But why is this health security language and framing necessary during times of crisis? Why is the term "health security" used when perhaps simply saying "public health" would do? As reference to 'health security' grows in contemporary discourse, research, advocacy, and policymaking, its prominence is perhaps most consequential in public health. Existing power dynamics in global health are produced and maintained through political processes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypertrophic cardiomyopathy management: a systematic review of the clinical practice guidelines and recommendations.
Eur Heart J Qual Care Clin Outcomes
January 2025
William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, Charterhouse Square, London EC1M 6BQ, UK.
Aims: In light of recent advances in imaging techniques, molecular understanding and therapeutic options in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), we performed a systematic review of current guidelines for the diagnosis and management of HCM in order to identify consensus and discrepant areas in the clinical practice guidelines.
Methods And Results: We systematically reviewed the English language guidelines and recommendations for the management of HCM in adults. MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched for guidelines published in the last 10 years.
Corpus Linguistics as a Research Method in Nursing: A Practical Approach to Analysing Language Data.
J Adv Nurs
January 2025
Department of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Health Wellbeing & Life Sciences, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
Aim: To highlight the use of corpus linguistics for analysing language data and to provide a worked example of this approach in nursing research.
Design: Methodology discussion paper.
Methods: This paper introduces corpus linguistics as a distinct approach to undertaking qualitative research in nursing.
Enhancing Persian text summarization through a three-phase fine-tuning and reinforcement learning approach with the mT5 transformer model.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
In the contemporary era, grappling with the vast expanse of big data presents a formidable obstacle, particularly when it comes to extracting vital information from extensive textual sources. The constant influx of news articles from various agencies necessitates an enormous amount of time to digest comprehensively. A viable solution to address this challenge lies in the realm of automatic text summarization, which is a pivotal and intricate endeavor within the field of natural language processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe case for neurons: a no-go theorem for consciousness on a chip.
Neurosci Conscious
December 2024
Department of Philosophy, Institute of Technology Futures, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Douglasstraße 24, Karlsruhe 76133, Germany.
We apply the methodology of no-go theorems as developed in physics to the question of artificial consciousness. The result is a no-go theorem which shows that under a general assumption, called dynamical relevance, Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that run on contemporary computer chips cannot be conscious. Consciousness is dynamically relevant, simply put, if, according to a theory of consciousness, it is relevant for the temporal evolution of a system's states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!