You sound how you eat: speech evolved as diet changed

Research confirms a long-derided linguistic theory. Natalie Parletta reports.

Softer, processed foods changed the way ancient humans spoke

The human capacity for language divides our species from the rest of the animal kingdom. Language has not only allowed us to conquer all corners of the globe, but to devise writing, mathematics ...

The 'F' and 'V' Sounds Might Only Be A Few Thousand Years Old

More than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today, each with unique words and phrases. But linguists have usually assumed that the sonic palette humans have used to produce these ...

How farming reshaped our smiles and our speech

Humans couldn't pronounce 'f' and 'v' sounds before farming developed

The development of agriculture in the Neolithic transformed world languages thanks to softer food – a finding that resolves a long-standing puzzle of the origin of speech sounds

The rise of farming altered our bite and changed how people talk

Soft, processed foods altered our bite, which added “f” and “v” sounds to speech and changed languages worldwide, a study finds.

Diet-induced changes favor innovation in speech sounds

Diet-induced changes in the human bite resulted in new sounds such as "f" in languages all over the world, according to a study by an international team led by researchers at the University ...

Ancestral Diet Changes Might Have Given Us the ‘F’ Word, Study Finds

Human speech sounds are shared worldwide, and a new study suggests that ancestral human diet changes might have caused “f” and “v” sounds in global languages. A group ...

Food innovations changed our mouths, which in turn changed our languages

The overbite that comes from eating soft food may make "ffff" sounds more common.

Softer Diets Allowed Early Humans to Pronounce "F," "V" Sounds

Drastic dietary changes during the agricultural revolution altered the configuration of the human bite, paving the way for new sounds in spoken language, a new study finds.

We Can Thank Agriculture and Soft Food for the 'F' Word, Claims Provocative New Study

Humans couldn’t always easily produce “f” and “v” sounds, according to a surprising new study. The reason we can now enjoy words like “flavor” and “effervescent,” say the researchers, ...

Human speech sounds evolved because of our diet, study says

Although languages around the world vary greatly, some share similar speech sounds. A new study suggests that labiodental sounds like "f" and "v" are included in about half of the world's languages ...

Study: How You Speak Shaped by What Your Ancestors Ate

NewsThe way most of us speak today is shaped in part by how long ago our ancestors gave up chewing tough, raw meat.Contributed Author: Christina Larson, Associated PressTopics: Food/Bev

Neolithic diet helped develop ‘f’ sound

Language was shaped by culturally induced changes in human biology, say researchers