Why living in the mountains affects the way you speak: Thinner air makes it easier to say certain sounds
Where we live - specifically, how high up we live - may have a far bigger impact on how languages are formed than previously thought. Languages containing 'ejective' consonants - guttural bursts of sound not found in English - mainly exist among communities at high altitudes. Lead scientist Dr Caleb Everett from the University of Miami believes that the reason might be that it takes less effort to produce ejectives in thinner mountain air. Scroll down for video On this partial world map, dark circles represent the areas where languages where ejectives occur. Clear circles represent areas where the ejective isn't part of the language. Scientists found a correlation between ejective languages and high altitude. Until recently most linguists believed environment mainly had an influence on vocabulary rather than sound. Researchers in the US found that 87 per cent of the languages with ejectives studied were located within 500 kilometres of a region of high elevation on al