An analysis of more than 500 contemporary languages has demonstrated that the number of speech sounds in a language decreases systematically
A) with the level of education of the population.
B) with the culture's distance from Africa along migration routes.
C) according to the cultural values embedded in the language.
D) with the level of assimilation into larger cultures.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The number of speech sounds in a language has been shown to decrease with the culture's distance from Africa along migration routes. This finding is based on research suggesting that as human populations migrated out of Africa, languages evolved and became simpler in phonetic complexity.

An Analysis of More Than 500 Contemporary Languages Has Demonstrated