Could language, affect the way people's heads are shaped?(Details. )
Long story short, I was recently trying to say some things in Mandarin. I speak English. I spoke German as a child, but can’t anymore. I speak some basic Spanish, but get lost by fast talkers.
Anyways, with that background in mind, I struggled mightily with exact pronunciations of the Mandarin language. Many of my struggles were from the way I had to move my tongue deep down my throat, while saying it right.
It’s logical, as to why some Asian people struggle with English. They have to move their mouth, totally different. It’s physically uncomfortable, for me to do Mandarin.
Because of a life of western languages. I think my throat, mouth, and temple muscles, are like too weak.
If an isolated group of people lived together and spoke the same language for many, many, generations, would the language change their head shape?
Or if you say you spoke a different language your whole life, would you look different?
I guess this is mostly, hypothetical. But, I was curious if any else, had an opinion about this…
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I don’t think it changes our head shape.
Some sounds are hard to learn as adults. These same groups of people when raised in another language can speak those languages with no problem.
Many English speakers have trouble trilling an r in Spanish and even pronouncing the single r on Spanish.
Many Spanish speakers have trouble with the English TH sound, except for the Spanish who pronounce s like th. Lol.
Some people have trouble with the Hebrew “CH” sound.
Children can learn it all.
Not being able to do some of the sounds in one’s primary language is like a lisp in English.
Interesting question. I am currently in a Neuroscience class and they are discussing how Language is an evolutionary adaption for humans to further their survival. Given that, our brain shape and size changes to accommodate this evolutionary adaption. That being the case, I am unsure if a specific dialect would form different changes specifically. But I side on that it would as some languages are far more advanced than others.
So the answer is yes in my mind.
I will add that language might change the face slightly. Using certain muscles around the mouth or cultural facial expressions can probably build the muscles on the face a few millimeters and change the face. For years I have thought this when looking at families and even families with adopted children. Also, couples that look more and more like each other over time. Or think about an athletic person’s face, you can usually tell. Part of it is just less body fat, but it also seems to me to be muscle building too. Maybe the facial expressions made while lifting heaving weights.
Some languages use a lot of the same sounds over and over again, so the face moving that way a lot might make small changes. On the face a small change is noticeable.
@Forever_Free I wonder if the brain’s language center is larger in societies where being bilingual or multilingual is common. Or, even where languages are very complex and more vocabulary needed to be fluent.
I saw on a show that the memory parts of the brain were physically larger in people with amazing memories. The researchers were surprised to find an actual physical difference.
@JLeslie Interesting thought. The brain size has certainly changed in humans over time. Many things affect that like hormone levels, diet, and even climate.
The neocortex, the outer layer of the brain, is especially large in humans and controls language, thinking, and motor skills. That said, one might speculate that it does change in size due to the complexity in complex thinking and complex communication.
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