Nhận biết (M1)

The Rarámuri language of northern Mexico has 20 vowel and consonant sounds. In contrast, the Taa language of southern Africa has over 100. Why would languages differ in this way? One researcher has claimed that when modern humans arose in Africa, they spoke a single language, but as humans gradually spread throughout Africa and then around the globe, that language developed into new languages. Those developed into still more languages as small bands of humans spread even farther, with each new language retaining fewer sounds from humanity’s original language.

Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the researcher’s claim?

• A.

  A wider range of sounds is found across the languages of Africa as a whole than across the languages of South America as a whole.

• B.

  Languages that emerged in Europe and Western Asia tend to have more sounds than languages that emerged in Africa do.

• C.

  Languages that emerged in Central America tend to have fewer sounds than languages that emerged in Western Europe do, and Central America is farther away from Africa than Western Europe is.

• D.

  The number of sounds is fairly consistent across the various languages that emerged in the last parts of Africa to be settled by humans.