Climate and the Consonant-Vowel (CV) Syllable: A Replication Within Language Families

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Abstract
Universality of the simple consonant-vowel (CV) syllable probably reflects its status as a prototype syllable facilitative of oral communication. Previous research has shown that in a world sample of 53 (relatively) independent languages, CV syllables were more frequent in warm than cold climate regions. The rationale proposed for this was that people in warm climates, as inhabitants of outdoor cultures, would on average engage in more distal communication than would people in cold (indoor) climates and that such distal communication would create a need for optimal transmittal of messages—that is, frequent usage of the CV syllable. The present study replicated the previous result within four language families, finding the same trend of higher CV frequency in warm climate areas. A secondary finding in the original investigation, that CV scores for languages with writing systems were lower than those for languages of nonliterate societies, also was upheld in the current study.

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