Cross-Language Predictors of Consonant-Vowel Syllables Author(s): Melvin Ember and Carol R.

Ember Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 101, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 730-742 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/684050 . Accessed: 01/08/2011 07:23
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MELVIN EMBER

CAROL R. EMBER

Human Relations AreaFiles,Inc.at YaleUniversity New Haven,CT06511

Predictorsof Consonant-Vowel Cross-Language Syllables

Inthispaper discuss that we ontolanguage-culture The cross-language findings openupa newwindow relationships. lanin thedegree which syllables a wordareconsonant-vowel in form. of theworld to the of A (CV) varyconsiderably guages cross-cultural (Munroe al. 1996)foundthatCV score(thepercentage CV syllables the average et of in study previous from can 20%to more than80%. That described and word) varyacross languages less than study theory evidence linking of CV syllables warmer to climates theabsence literacy. theory evidence and of The and offered here highpercentages of baby-holding-is thatanother morepredictive CV scoresthaneither of climate literacy. or factor-degree suggests Meannumber syllables wordis alsoa predictor CVscores. of of Other that per possible predictors couldbe tested experimentallyandotherwisearediscussed.[cross-cultural, syllables,baby-holding] cross-language, morphology,

ver sincethe daysof Edward SapirandBenjamin

Lee Whorf,and probablyeven before,anthropologists have investigatedand debated various relaRecenttimeshave tionshipsbetweenlanguageandculture. seen severalnoteworthy publications, amongthemthe fola belowing. CharlesHockett(1985) reported correlation and tween mode of subsistence the occurrence the sound of "f" in a sample of languages around the world. Cecil Brown and StanleyWitkowski(1980; Brown 1984) published numerous studiesover the yearsshowing strongassociationsbetweenlinguisticphenomena-mostly involving the lexicon as opposedto phonologyor grammar-and culturalvariables.And, of course, who can ignore Brent BerlinandPaulKay's (1969) famousobservation size that is with soof basic color vocabulary positively correlated cial complexity?(See also Ember1978.) In this paper,we discuss resultsfromcross-cultural studiesthatmay stimulate a new directionin language-culture research-on the of the degree to which the words in a landeterminants (CV) syllables. guage arecomposedof consonant-vowel Despite the fact that the consonant-vowelsyllable is "the most common type of syllable in the world's languages" (Macaulay 1994:220, as cited in Munroeet al. in 1996), languagesvaryconsiderably the degreeto which areconsonant-vowel (CV) in form.As scoredby syllables Munroeet al. (1996), some languageshavea relatively low of CV syllablesin the averageword (less than percentage 20%);in otherlanguages,more than 80% of the syllables in the averagewordhavethe CV form.The languageof the SamoanIslands,wherethe firstauthor fieldwork,is an did example of the latter.In some languages,such as Samoan, nearlyevery syllablestartswith a consonantandends with

a vowel. The Samoanpreference CV syllablesis strikfor In English, the word Christmas two syllables in has ing. The firstsyllableis CCVCin form,pronounced as speech. The "Kris." secondsyllableis CVCin form,pronounced as In Samoan,the word for Christmas "muss." (Kerisimasi) has five syllables,all CV in form,pronounced "Keh-reeas see-mah-see."'Munroeet al. (1996) present theory and evidence linking high percentagesof CV syllables to warmerclimatesandthe absenceof literacy.Herewe present theory and evidence for a third factor---degreeof This thirdfactoris the strongest of baby-holding. predictor variation CV scores.Multipleregression in cross-language is of analysisrevealsthatbaby-holding a stronger predictor CV scoresthanclimateor literacy.We also find thatmean numberof syllablesper wordis a predictor well. In the as sectionof this paper,we discussotherpossible concluding that might be tested in futurestudies,and how predictors could be tested-experimentally (in the field and in they the laboratory) well as by ethnohistorical, as cross-historiand cross-cultural studies.Whateverthe outcomesof cal, futurestudies,the findingsdiscussedhereshow thatthe degree to which the syllables of a word are CV in form is measurableand predictableacross the languages of the world.

Previous Theory and Results

The majorfindingin Munroe al. (1996) is thatwarmer et climatesare associatedwith higherCV scores. This association,which was testedon a sampleof 53 societies, was derivedfrom the Munroeet al. theoryaboutcommunicative efficiency. Referred hereafter the"Munroe to as theory," this theorysuggeststhatthe conditionsor requirements of

AmericanAnthropologist101(4):730-742. Copyright0 2000, AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation

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differfrom one kind of climateto spokencommunication another.The theoryassumes that consonant-vowelsyllables produce maximum phonetic contrastand therefore should be favoredwhere speakersoften try to communicate with each otherat a distance.In otherwords,theMunroe theory assumes that a high percentageof consonantvowel syllablesin the averageword shouldbe particularly ,useful where the climateis moderateto warmand people thereforeconversea lot out of doors;the less oftenconsonants are strungtogetherwithout vowels in between,the more easily speech shouldbe understood, at particularly a distance.A high meanpercentage consonant-vowel of syllables is presumed to be optimal for both hearer and "Thehearer benefitsfromperceptual distinctness, speaker: and the speaker,in conveying messages with these minimal syllabicunitsrather thanmorecomplexones, achieves of articulation" (Munroeet al. 1996:62).Voweleconomy consonant(VC) syllablesmightalso providephoneticcontrast,butMunroeet al. (1996:68)ignorethembecausethey occur only about 10%of the time in the Munroesample.2 In short,the Munroetheoryis thatwarmer climatesshould favor speechwith a high CV score. It shouldbe notedthat the communicative efficiencyof a high CV languageis assumed, not confirmed;data supportingthat assumption have not yet been presented. Also, it is not clear why frecontrast,in the form of a high CV score, quent phonetic in wouldnot alwaysbe advantageous, all climates.3 The resultspresented Munroeet al. (1996) seem conby sistent with the idea thatclimatehas an effect. They used CV scores calculatedby a linguistics student, Stephen to Winters,who at the time was unawareof the hypotheses in is be tested.(Thecodingprocedure brieflydescribed the in next section.)Munroeet al. (1996) foundthatlanguages warmer climates(i.e., withfewer than5 cold months)have an averageCV scoreof 59%,while languagesin colderclimates average42%. This differenceis statistically signifiwas cantby t-test.The climatepredictor definedandmeasured by Munroeet al. (1996) as follows. Cold climates were those in which mean wintertemperatures stayedbelow 10 degreescentigrade degreesFahrenheit) (50 during at least 5 monthsof the year (roughlyNovemberthrough March in the NorthernHemisphere).All other climates were consideredwarmerand very likely to have people
communicating out of doors at a distance for much of the year. The cut-off point of 5 or more cold months, as defined, may mark the point of other threshold effects as well; Whiting et al. (1982) found it to be a general constraint on the migration of preindustrialpeoples throughout the world. Munroe et al. (1996) also found another predictor of high CV scores-namely, the absence of literacy. In their conception, literacy means that writing and reading systems are based on the local language, rather than a language imposed from the outside, and literacy is general in

and CV score is not symmetrical. While no cold climates

cultures (57%). The moststriking the thingabout climateresultin the is thatno language a cold climate(i.e., in Munroe study with 5 or morecold months) a CV scoreas highas has 60%.Languages a highCVscorearetropical subwith or But between climate tropical phenomena. therelationship

the society rather than confined to a relatively small numberof specialists.The Munroetheoryaboutthe effect of generalor widespread literacyis thatwrittencommunication reduces the need for a high CV score in the language. A culturewith a writtenlanguageis likely to have many kinds of full-timespecialistsand a highly technical economy, and hence many specializedor technicalwords (BrownandWitkowski1980).Such wordsarelikely to be used mostlyin writtencommunication wouldnot genand erallyneed to have a high CV scoreto be optimallyunderstood, accordingto Munroeet al. Thatis, a languagein a warmerclimate could have a lower mean CV score than expectedif the culturewas literateandmuchof communication was written,not spoken.The cross-cultural datain the Munroedata set are consistentwith this expectation. The meanCV scorefor the literateculturesis significantly lower (41%) than the mean CV score for the nonliterate

the Munroetheory of communicativeefficiency. If anything, the asymmetryin the resultsshould be oppositeto what they found. Warmerclimates should almost always have higher CV scores, and lower scores and more varicolderclimates.Thatclearlyis ability shouldcharacterize not the case. The asymmetrical distribution the associaof tionbetweenclimateandCV scoressuggestseitherthatthe variationin CV scores in warmerclimatesmay have anothercause (or causes), still to be established,or thatthe climate resultmay be a spuriouscorrelateof some other predictor.

havehighCV scores,the warmer climates nearlyas are half,18of 40, likelyto havelow ashighCVscores: nearly in to climates have also of thelanguages moderate warm CV scores lowerthan 60%. Thissituation theimpetus was forourownresearch CV scores. factthatwarmer on The climates with in varygreatly CV scoresis not consistent

The Influence of Baby-Holding

What else might predict higher CV scores? We think the theory offered in Barbara C. Ayres's (1973) study of rhythm in music suggests an answer. She describes her theory as follows (Ayres 1973:389-390): The hypothesisinvestigatedin this study predictsthatcrossculturalvariationin the frequencyand importance regular of rhythmin music will be relatedto variationin early somatosensory stimulation derived from body contact with the mother or other caretakers. The extent and natureof such stimulationvaries from one society to another depending upon the frequencyandmannerin which infantsareheld and

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This assumes regular that in carried. formulation rhythm muof or sic is modeled the sensation regular on up-and-down whichtheinfant whilebeing side-to-side motion, experiences carried. Reinforcement theorysuggeststhatthe moresuch are with derived fromcontact, sensations associated rewards the will and maintenance, greater be the feeding, temperature valueof regular thatis, its ability reward to rhythm, acquired and evokefeelings relaxation pleasure. of Onceacquired durthis valuewouldtendto and ing infancy childhood, reward in into for persist adultlife andfindexpression a preference beats It musiccharacterized regularly by recurring oraccents. is assumed oneof themotives listening orperformthat for to and the of pleasure that percentage ingmusicis to experience canbe usedas a culture's thatemployregular rhythm songs valueof suchrhythms a typical an indexof the reward for of The member thesociety. degree which to members a soof reshould, then,be positively rhythm ciety "prefer" regular with latedto themanner frequency whichinfants carand are mothers mother or riedby their surrogates. So Ayreslinksfrequent to for baby-holding a preference regularrhythmin music. A baby who is held on the body duringdaytimeis exposed to the regularrhythmof heart beats, breathing, walking,hoeing, and so on. Babies carried often may learnto like regularrhythmbecauseof the it rewards is associatedwith--easy accessto thebreastand milk, the warmthof the caretaker's body, the stimulation of varyingsightsandsounds.The acquired reward valueof shouldpersistinto adulthood therefore and regularrhythm affect what adultspreferin music. This expectationwas test by supported Ayres's cross-cultural results.She found in musicwas predicted thata preference regular for rhythm by baby-holding. We thinkthatAyres's theorycanbe generalized other to we domains. In particular, think that speech could have For rhythms. example,if a languagehas a high CV regular of score, it would have regularalternation consonantsand vowels in its syllables(CV-CV-CV-CV.. .). Thus,we reasoned that, if the Ayres theory aboutrhythmin music is shouldalso predicthighCV correct, frequent baby-holding scores. Indeed,we would expect thatfrequentbaby-holding should producea preferencefor all kinds of regular rhythm,in otherdomainsas well as in music and speech. We hope thatthe new resultspresented below will encourresearchers explorethesepossibilities. to age

The New Study

Ourstudywas designedto test for the possibleinfluence of baby-holding CV score.The dependent on CV variable, and variable, so we canuse multiplerescore,is an interval and gressionanalysisto examinethe independence relative of power of all the suggestedpredictors CV score-those suggestedby Munroeet al. (1996) andthe one we aresugThe multipleregression gesting, degree of baby-holding. model is appropriate even if some of the supposedindependent variablesare "dummy"or dichotomousordinal

variables(Lewis-Beck 1980:66-67); two of the possible are as that predictors treated dummyvariables, is, cold versus warmerclimate and presenceversus absenceof literLabovitz(1970) has shownthatthe regresacy. Moreover, sion model is quite robustand can accommodate ordinal variablestreatedas intervalvariables,which is how we treattheindependent variable baby-holding. of For the new results we are reportinghere, we used a usedby Munslightlylarger samplethanthe one originally roe et al. (1996). The sampleused in Munroeet al. (1996) consistedof 53 cultures,36 of the 60 cases in the original HRAF Probability SamplesFiles (PSF) for which the redatawere available,plus 17 culturesthatwere recquired ommended as substitutesfor cases with missing data (Naroll 1967). Seven cases were subsequentlyaddedby the Munroesto bring the sample to 60, and we have includedthesein ourcurrent or sample(one culture, primary for each of the 60 cultureareasrepresented in substitute, the PSF sample;also, the Munroeslatersubstituted Central Thaifor Garobecausethe wordlist availablefor Garowas The selectedculvery small).4 PSF includesone randomly turefromeachof 60 macro-culture areas.The selectedculture had to meet certaindata-quality criteria(long-term knew the nativelanguage, and fieldwork,the ethnographer at least 1,200 published pages of ethnography,among othercriteria). mostof thecultureareas,a randomly For selectedculture suggestedas a substitute case of missing is in data.The sampling of procedure choosingjust one case per cultureareawas adoptedto minimizethe worry,originally raisedby FrancisGalton(see the end of Tylor 1888), that historical relatedness betweensamplecases, or diffusionof traitsbetweencases becauseof proximity,may makesample correlationsmore significant statisticallythan they would otherwisebe.5 To be sure,the culturesin a macrocultureareacould be similarbecause of common history and/or diffusion, but we should rememberthat cultural similarities maybe mostlydueto similarcausalconditions, environmental other.In any case, becauseonly one case or was includedfromeach of the 60 macro-culture areas,recent commonhistoryand diffusionare not likely to have betweenthe 60 cases in the PSF, any produced similarities andtherefore correlations in observable the sampleare any to be realor functional, rather thanresultsof anceslikely tryor diffusion. The percentage consonant-vowel of syllablesin the language (the CV score) was measuredby Munroe et al. (1996) as follows. A list of up to 200 wordswas compiled for each samplesociety.The primary sourceconsultedwas HRAFsubjectcategory192 ("Vocabulary"), searches with of other subjectcategoriesfor additionalnative words.6 Occasionally,therewas a dictionaryor glossaryavailable on the language.Wheremorethan200 wordswere available, as in dictionaries,a representative sample of 200 words was selectedby systematicallysamplingevery nth word or, in largerdictionaries, word on every nth page. a

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Some terms were excluded by the Munroesbecause they were considered inappropriate the hypothesis tests: for probableloan words, proper nouns, and song or chant words. (Futureresearchmight profitablylook at whether CV scoresfor such wordsarepredictable the same ways in thatCV scores for ordinary wordsseem to be predictable. We would guess thatthey are,considering how the Samoans changed Christmasto Kerisimasi.)The CV score for each society was derivedby dividing the numberof CV of syllablesin each samplewordby the totalnumber syllables in that word, and then addingthese individualquotientstogetheranddividingthe sum by the totalnumberof wordsin the sampleof wordsfor thatlanguage.7 mean The CV score for the sample societies in the Munroe et al. (1996) data set is 55%;that is, slightly more thanhalf of the syllables in the averageword in the averagelanguage have the consonant-vowelform.8The mean CV score for the slightlylargersampleusedhereis 54.17%. To measureour new variable,frequencyof baby-holddata found in the HRAF ing, we used the ethnographic Collectionof Ethnography (microficheandelectronicversions, as of 1997). The indexing system for HRAF (the Outline of Cultural Materials [Murdocket al. 1987]) makesit easy to searchfor particular kinds of information of the day babies are held) acrossthousands (e.g., portion of ethnographic pages and hundredsof culturespast text andpresent. is in Degreeof baby-holding measured termsof 5 easily A high degreeof baby-holding scale points.9 distinguished (scale score 5) meansthatthe pre-walking baby (as of the time describedin the ethnography) carriedor held alwas mostall if not all of the day on the back,hip, or frontof the motheror othercaretaker, withouta hardmaterial(e.g., a A betweenthem.10 case is coded as havinga cradleboard) of baby-holding(scale score 4) if high-moderate degree the babywas carriedor heldmostof the day withouta hard materialbetween. Moderatebaby-holding (scale score 3) meansthatthe pre-walking was carried or held for baby by about half of the day without a hard materialbetween. Low-moderate (scale score 2) meansthatthe baby-holding or babywas carried heldsome (butclearlynot pre-walking as much as half) of the day withouta hard materialbetween. And low baby-holding(scale score 1) means that the pre-walking baby spentlittleor no timeduringthe day on the back, hip, or front of a caretaker; if the baby or, therealmost always was a spent any time on a caretaker, hardmaterial(e.g., a cradleboard) betweenthem. Table 1 shows the CV scores,numberof cold months,literacy,and ournew variable, in degreeof baby-holding, columns1-4.9 Note thatwe could not ratebaby-holding 10 of the 60 for samplesocieties,so oureffectivesamplesize for the analyses thatincludebaby-holding 50. is Our coding of degree of baby-holding not take indid dulgence,in feeding or any otherrespect,into account.A

mothermay nurse on demand(or even before the infant seems to wantto be fed), andinfantsmay not cry much,if ever, but we did not code those aspectsof baby tending. For example,the Central Thai (as of the early 1960s) were when it came to nursing,and a child was very indulgent neverleft aloneduringits wakinghours.But therewas little or no body contact with a caretaker (Piker 1964). A baby mightsit next to someone,but not on someone.Or it would lie in a cradle.Theremighteven be anticipatory into avoidbeingannoyedby a noisy or demanding dulgence: infant,a mothermightrushfrom somewhereelse to comforta fussingbabywiththe breast.But the babywas hardly ever held. Accordingly,the CentralThai (as of the early And they had a 1960s) are coded as low in baby-holding. low CV score (23%) despite living in a climate with no cold months.But they were literateas well as low in babyholding. So, in the early 1960s, they had two of the hyof pothesized predictors a low CV score. On the otherend of the scale of CV scores,theYanoama of Amazonia(as of earlyin the 1900s) were high in babyholding.The infantor young child was hardlyever out of body contactwith the mother(Becher 1918).Not only did she sleep with thebabyin the samehammock(close sleepoccur also in low baby-holdingsocieing arrangements ties), the baby was always on the motherduringthe day. The Yanoamamothercarriedthe baby on her hip if she was gathering food in the forestor doingworkin or around the house. The Yanoamaalso lived in a warmclimate(no cold months)and lacked literacy.So, in the early 1900s, they had all three hypothesizedpredictorsof a high CV score,andtheirCV score of 76 is in fact a high one in our worldwidesample. Before gettingto the resultsof our multipleregression As analysis,let us first examine the bivariatepredictors. the higherthe baby-holding, higherthe the hypothesized, CV scores.Figure1 shows the scatterplot the significant of associationbetween degree of baby-holding and positive CV score,andthe bestfit linearregression (r = .502;N line = 50; p < .0005, one-tailed).In contrastto climate,which predictsmuch betterfor cold than warm climates,babyto holdingappears predictwell acrossthe entirespectrum of societies.(The cases are moreor less evenly distributed aroundthe line at each level of baby-holding.) The Vietnamese,with a CV scoreof 18 anda moderate baby-holding score (3), is the only society that appearsvery far off the best fit regression line. (The Vietnameseareone of the 7 literatesocieties in Figure 1.) As hypothesized Munby roe et al. (1996), thereis also a significantassociationbetween climate (warm versus cold, as dichotomizedby
Munroe et al. [1996]) and CV score (r = .403; N= 60; p <

colderclimateshave lower CV scores. .0005, one-tailed): And thereis a significantnegativeassociationbetweenlitand eracy(literateversusnonliterate) CV score (r = -.329;

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Table 1. Data for the Sample Societiesa Culture CV Score (1) Andamans Aranda Ashanti Aymara Bemba Blackfoot Burma Cagaba Caingang Caraja CentralThai Chukchee CopperEskimo Cuna Dogon Fang Fox Ganda Greeks Hausa HighlandScots Iban Ifugao Iroquois Kapauku Khasi Klamath Korea Kpelle Lapps Lau Fiji Lebanon(Arab) Lozi Masai Mescalero Mundurucu Ojibwa Ona Pashtun Pemon Rwala San Santal Serbs Shluh Sinhalese Somali Tarahumara Teda Tiv Tlingit Toba Tonga 65 63 63 80 67 39 25 60 57 65 23 33 41 70 78 35 57 67 58 80 16 48 55 43 75 27 38 45 65 53 72 52 80 56 67 43 43 40 48 65 42 52 68 56 38 75 49 85 65 39 33 59 80 Cold Mos (2) 0 0 0 3 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 12 12 0 0 0 7 0 3 0 9 0 0 6 0 0 5 5 0 10 0 3 0 0 4 0 8 12 3 0 3 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 Literacy (3) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Babyhold (4) 4 3 5 5 5 1 2 1 4 5 1 1 2 2 5 1 4 1 4 5 4 1 5 1 5 5 1 3 Doubtful (5) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 Phonemes (6) 24 30 V/C Ratio (7) 0.333 0.1 Mean No. Syl (8) 2.7 2.81 2.79 2.56 2.7 4.12 2.4 2.78 2.75 3.25 1.4 2.7 3.42 4.45 2.22 2.05 1.65 3.42 3.13 2.29 1.59 2.22 2.83 3.9 2.9 1.7 2.38 2.1 1.89 2.54 2.61 2.38 2.89 2.65 5.21 2.37 3.6 2.06 2.2 3.2 2.26 2.06 2.33 2.35 2.3 2.7 1.9 3.14 2.52 1.71 1.73 3.16 3.46

46

0.283

30 23

0.3 0.348

26 42

0.192 0.238

27 37 39 32 26 64 28

0.222 0.108 0.462 0.406 0.231 0.125 0.321

5 1 1 1 1 5 1 5 5 1

27 36

0.407 0.167

141

0.17

3 5 4 1 1

36 39

0.389 0.231

48

0.104

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Table 1. Continued. Culture CV Score (1) Toradja Trobriands Truk Tzeltal Vietnamese Yakut Yanoama 61 80 42 32 16 45 76 Cold Mos (2) 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 Literacy (3) 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Babyhold (4) 1 4 2 4 3 1 5 Doubtful (5) 0 1 0 2 1 1 0 Phonemes (6) V/C Ratio (7) Mean No. Syl (8) 3.48 3.26 2.09 1.97 1.99 1.92 2.49

28 34 41

0.179 0.353 0.195

a CV score (column 1) is the percentageof consonant-vowel syllables in the language.Cold months (column 2) is the numberof months for is which the mean temperature at or below 10 degrees centigrade.Literacy(column 3) is 1 if writing and readingsystems were long established and based on the local language,and literacy appearedto be generalin the society; 0 if literacy is absent. Babyholding(column 4) is 5 (high) if the pre-walkingbaby is carriedor held almost all if not all of the day on the back, hip, or front withouta hardmaterialbetweenthe baby and the 4 caretaker; (high/moderate)if the baby is held as above for most of the day; 3 (moderate)if the baby is held as above for about half the day; 2 (low/moderate)if the baby was held some of the day; 1 (low) if the pre-walkingbaby spentlittle or no time on the back, hip, or frontof a caretaker or if therewas almost always a hardcarryingdevice between them. Doubtfulratings(column 5) are 0 if therewere no doubtfulratingson the case; 1 if there was some doubtin the ratingon baby-holding;2 if therewas some doubton numberof cold months;3 if there were doubtfulratingson both climate and baby-holding.Phonemes(column 6) are the numberof phonemesretrievedfrom Maddieson(1984). V/C ratio(column 7) is the ratio of vowels to consonants(from Maddieson 1984). Mean numberof syllables (column 8) is the average numberof syllables per word in the sampled word corpus. Data in columns 1-3, partof column 5, and column 8 are from Munroeet al. (1996) and from RobertL. Munroe(personal communication).

the N = 60; p < .005, one-tailed): literatecases have lower CV scores. Omittingthe cases rated with some doubt on climate and communication) omitting (RobertL. Munroe, personal the cases that we ratedwith some doubton baby-holding strengthensthe obtained correlations(see the doubtful and scoresin column5 of Table 1). The r forbaby-holding CV score (N = 35) improvesfrom .502 to .526, and the r for climate and CV score (N = 53) improvesfrom .403 to are .464. These improvements consistentwith the ideathat moreamcases coded with some doubtarecases described
90 80 70 o o

60
50
o o

o./ 403020 10 0 1 2

.
3

Baby-Holding Figure 1. Relationshipbetween Baby-Holdingand CV Score.

texts, and hence to biguouslyin the originalethnographic include such cases in a statisticalanalysis probablyincreases random error, which generally weakens results (Emberet al. 1991:206). We should briefly mentionthat threepossible alternative explanations CV scorescan be rejected.One is that of in CV scoremay be relatedto variation cultural complexity because literacyis more likely in complex cultures.But thatis not true:CV scoreis not significantly relatedto culturalcomplexity(Munroeet al. 1996). The dataprovided to us by RobertL. Munroeenableus to rejecttwo otherexof planations the variancein CV scores.It mightbe imagined thatwarmer climateshavelarger(or smaller)numbers of phonemes,andhigherCV scoresmighttherefore asbe sociatedwith largeror smallernumbers phonemes.But of is this alternative either;the asexplanation not supported sociation(r = .06) betweenCV score and numberof phonemes is not significantlydifferentfrom zero."Finally,it in mightbe imaginedthatthe variation CV scorescouldbe a consequenceof cross-language variationin the ratioof vowels to consonants: languageswith a high ratioof vowels mighthave a higherCV scoreforthatreasonalone.But this alternative is the explanation also not supported; association between CV score and vowel-consonantratio is also not significantlydifferentfrom zero (r = .04).12The datafor number phonemesandratioof vowels to consoof in is provided columns6 and7 of Table1. nants that Thereis one otheralternative explanation may need to be considered.One of the reviewerssuggestedthatthe between literacyand lower CV scores might relationship

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be explainedas a functionof word length,thatCV scores might be lower in literatesocieties because their words tend to be longer.The reasoningis as follows: literatesoof cieties have a higherproportion specializedwords.Specialized words are less frequently used than ordinary words, which are shorterthan specializedwords ("Zipf's Law"-see Zipf 1935). If more complex morphologyreduces the likelihoodof CV syllables,the greaterlengthof wordsin literatesocieties mightbe an alternative explanation of the findingthatliteratesocietieshave loweraverage CV scores.To approximate averageword length,we used data providedto us by Robert L. Munroe on the mean of number syllablesper wordin each samplelanguage(see column 8 of Table 1). It turnsout thatthe averagenumber of syllablesin a wordis significantlyrelatedto CV score, but in the oppositedirectionfrom thatexpectedby the reviewer.Thatis, the moresyllablesin the averageword,the higher the averagenumberof CV syllables in the word. The correlation .424 (p < .001, two tailed because the is was direction thecorrelation notexpected).And of positive literatelanguagestendto have fewer syllablesin the averthe age word,not moresyllables,although differenceis not = -.234; p <.072, two tailed). However, significant (r even thoughthe resultis oppositeto whatthe reviewerexpected, the significantrelationshipbetween the average numberof syllablesin a word and CV score suggeststhat of we shouldconsiderwordlength(number syllables)in a post-hocanalysis.We do so below.But firstlet us compare the effects of the predictors discussedso far:climate,literacy, andbaby-holding. How strongare the effects relativeto each other?How together predict predictors stronglydo all of the theoretical have separateor indeCV score?Do our threepredictors between pendent effects? Is there any multicollinearity This them? (Are we dealing with redundant predictors?) inasmuchas two of last questionis particularly important the independentvariables--degree of baby-holdingand the climate variable dichotomized as warm versus cold-are significantly and moderatelycorrelatedwith each other(r = .530,N = 50, p < .0005, two tailed).Therein and betweenbaby-holding climateis striking lationship where the almostcompleteabsenceof high baby-holding the climateis cold (five or morecold months).In this sample, Koreais the only cold climatesocietywherebabiesare varies held almostall of the day. In contrast, baby-holding from high to low in societies that have few or no cold bemonths. There are no other significantrelationships variables. tweenthe independent Table 2 shows fourdifferentmultipleregressionanalyses that are all significantat the .001 level. The first two columns (1 and 2) show the multiple regressionresults when we considerjust the two independent variables proposed by Munroeet al. (1996)-climate (dichotomized) and literacy.(The cases rateddoubtfullyon climate were removedfor the analysisin column2.) As with the bivari-

ate correlations, removingthe doubtfulcases increasesthe standardized coefficientsfor the two independent variables standardized coefficient for climate in column 2 is (the coefficient .427 comparedwith .374, andthe standardized for literacyis -.358 compared with -.291). Columns3 and 4 are criticalto our theoryaboutbaby-holding. Most important is whether baby-holdingis a significant indeof pendentpredictor CV score when the effects of climate and literacyare controlled. The resultsof the multipleregressions (columns3 and 4) show thatbaby-holdingis a of significantindependent predictor CV score: the standardizedcoefficientis .334 in column3, and .450 when the and doubtfulcases on baby-holding climate are removed (p < .01, one tailed).Climateis no longera significant predictor at the .05 level. Removingthe doubtfulcases nora but mally strengthens real relationship the standardized coefficient for climate drops to .151 when the doubtful cases areremoved.13The overallmodelusing all threepredictors accounts for nearly 50% of the variancein CV scores (.690 squared)when the doubtfullyratedcases are omitted. We need to considerwhether climatemightbe moreimas a predictorif it were not dichotomizedin the portant manner Munroeet al. (1996), butrather of treatedas an interval variable(i.e., numberof cold months).14Accordingly, we redidthe multipleregressions(not shown) with climateas an intervalvariable. resultswereessentially The the same.Numberof cold monthsis a significant predictor, is along with literacy,when baby-holding not includedin the model. However, as with the dichotomizedclimate variable,numberof cold monthsis no longera significant when baby-holding includedin the model. As is predictor we shall discussin the conclusion,climatemay have been significantin the Munroeet al. (1996) analysislargelybecauseof its relationship baby-holding. to Now let us considerthe variable meannumber sylof of lables in a word.Recallthatit is negativelyrelatedto literacy, which is oppositeto what was suggestedby our reviewer. Thus, we must ask if numberof syllables could have affectedthe multipleregressionsshown in Table 2. Accordingly,we addedmean numberof syllablesto each of the models shown in Table2 and redidthe multiplereof gressions(see Table3). The meannumber syllablesin a wordis a significantpredictor CV score;the longerthe of average word as measuredby numberof syllables, the higherthe CV score. Includingmean numberof syllables in the model seems to weakenthe effect of literacy(compare the coefficientsfor literacyin Table 3 and Table 2). This weakening is surprisingbecause literate languages tendto have fewersyllableson average(r = -.234, p = .07, two tailed), so literacy and mean number of syllables shouldaffectCV scoresin oppositedirections. literacy But is not significantin column4. The overallmodelin column 4 (includingclimate, literacy,mean numberof syllables, and baby-holding) predictsnearly60% of the variancein

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Table 2. A Comparisonof MultipleRegressionAnalyses PredictingCV Scoresa Munroeet al. (1996) model (1) All cases Coefficient Standardized Warm(1) vs. Cold (0) (2) Doubtfulson climate removed Standardized Coefficient Adding Baby-holding (3) All cases Standardized Coefficient (4) Doubtfuls on climate and baby-holdingremoved Standardized Coefficient

Climate
Literacy Baby-holding N R
R2

.374(p< .001)
-.291 (p <.01) 60 .496 (p = .000) .246 .220

.427(p< .001)
-.358 (p <.01) 53 .585 (p = .000) .342 .316

.216(n.s.)
-.336 (p <.01) .334 (p <.01) 50 .626 (p = .000) .392 .352

.151(n.s.)
-.332 (p <.05) .450 (p <.01) 30 .690 (p = .001) .477 .416

adjustedR2
a

Probabilityvalues for the first three rows are one-tailedbecause the directionof causalitywas specified in advance.The constantis omitted.

as is CV scores.The statusof baby-holding a predictor not affected by the additionof mean numberof syllables.If anything,the effect of baby-holdingappearsnow to be the in stronger (compare coefficientsfor baby-holding columns3 and4 of Tables3 and2). Althoughwe have discussedthe fact thatthe 60-culture PSF minimizesthe possible effects of common ancestry and diffusion,the resultsmight still be due to the fact that some of the samplelanguagesderivefromcommonancestral languages.If we had sufficient numbersof cases in various languagefamilies, we would be able to add the and variableof languagefamilyto the predictive equations coefficientsfor each languagefamstandardized compute ily. However,even if the presentsampledoes not give us enoughcases perlanguagefamily for thatkindof analysis, we can look to see if degree of baby-holding consistently in predictsthe variation CV scores withinlanguagefamilies. To do so, we used the largestlanguagefamilyor phylum reported Voegelin andVoegelin (1977) for each of by

our samplecases. In Table4, we show only those cases for which the following conditionsare true: (1) the sample containsmorethanone society in a given languagefamily or phylum; (2) there is some variabilityin CV scores and amongthe cases in the languagefamily or phylum; (3) thereis variation theindependent on variable baby-holdof ing. Lookingatthe cases in Table4, we can see thatthereis considerablevariationin many of the language groups shown. For example,in the first four languagegroupsof Table 4 and in the next-to-lastlanguagegroup,thereis at least a 38-point spread between the highest and lowest scores. Is the spreadin CV score predictedby baby-holding? While we do not have enoughcases for testsof statistical significancewithin languagegroups,we can test for the significanceof the directionof the correlations across all the groups(see the correlations the lastcolumnof Tain ble 4). Seven of the eightcorrelations positive,whichis are a Sign Test (p = .035, one tailed).Moreover, by significant most of the correlations high-six of them are .61 or are

Table 3. A Reanalysis of the Models Presentedin Table 2 Adding MeanNumberof Syllables. Munroeet al. (1996) model (1) All cases Coefficient Standardized Climate Literacy Mean No. of Syllables Baby-holding N R
R2

Adding Baby-holding (3) All cases Standardized Coefficient .170 (n.s.) -.251 (p < .05) .335 (p < .01)a .418 (p < .001) 50 .702 (p = .000) .493 .448 (4) Doubtfuls on climate and baby-holdingremoved Standardized Coefficient .123 (n.s.) -.201 (n.s.) .390 (p < .01)a .595 (p < .001) 30 .774 (p = .000) .599 .535

(2) Doubtfulson climate removed Standardized Coefficient .419 (p < .001) -.278 (p < .05) .263 (p < .05)a 53 .637 (p = .000) .405 .369

.368 (p < .001) -.208 (p < .05) .361 (p < .001)a 60 .607 (p = .000) .369 .335

adjustedR2
a

of A two-tailedprobability valueis used for the prediction meannumberof syllablesperword,becausethedirectionof effect was not anticipated.

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Table 4. Comparisonsof CV Scores by Baby-Holdingwithin LanguageGroups. Baby-HoldingScores Largest Language Groupa Afro-Asiatic Andean-Equatorial Austro-Asiatic Austronesian Ge-Pano-Carib Macro-Chibchan Niger-Congo Ona 40 Vietnamese 16 Toradja61 Toba 59 Cagaba60 Cuna 70 Truk42 Lau Fiji 72 Ifugao 55 Trobriands 80 Caingang57 Yanoama76 Ganda67 Tiv 39 Ashanti63 Bemba 67 Dogon 78 Kpelle 65 1 2 Rwala 42 3 Somali 49 4 Hausa80 Aymara80 Santal68 Iban48 Caraja65 Pemon 65 5 Correlation (Pearson's r) r = .858 r = 1.00 r = 1.00 r = .069 r = .619 r = .911 r = .609

Penutian
a

Klamath38

Tzeltal 32

r = .-1.00

The language groups were obtainedfrom Voegelin and Voegelin (1977).

more."The only exceptionis the Penutian phylumwhere to in the variation the two cases is contrary the baby-holding hypothesis.

Summary and Conclusions

In an earlierstudy,Munroeet al. (1996) theorizedthat CV (consonant-vowel)syllables are more clearly understood than otherkinds of syllables. Hence they predicted that CV syllables would be more prevalentin warm cliis mateswheretherepresumably a greatdeal of communithat cationout of doors.In addition,they predicted literate would have fewer CV syllables because such languages rely languages on writtenas well as verbalcommunication. Using t tests,Munroeet al. (1996) foundthatbothcold climate and literacysignificantlypredictlower averageCV scores. However, the data presentedby Munroe et al. to that (1996) show an asymmetry is contrary theirtheory. in a cold climate (i.e., with 5 or more While no language cold months)has a CV score as high as 60%,the warmer climatesarenearlyas likely to havelow as highCV scores. If CV syllables really facilitate communicationout of doors,warmclimatesshouldalmostalwayshave high CV scores;colderclimatesmight be more variable.Thus, the in high variability warmclimatesocietiessuggestedone of causalfactwo possibilitiesto us: (1) thereis an important of tor missingin the Munroeet al. (1996) explanation CV that or (2) the relationship Munroeet al. foundbescores, tween climate and CV score is a spuriousresultof some otherfactor. baby-holding Using Ayres's (1973) theorythatfrequent we makesregular rewarding, suggestherethathigh rhythm also partlyexplainsa high frequencyof CV baby-holding

syllables (a high frequencyof CV syllables will createa of regularalternation consonantsand vowels, creatinga kind of regularrhythm).In addition,we find that higher of proportions CV syllables are predictedby more syllables per averageword in a language.Multipleregression analysessuggestthatthesetwo factors-baby-holdingand mean numberof syllables in a word-are significantand of predictors CV scores.Inthoseanalyses,cliindependent of mate is no longera significantpredictor CV score and in one analysis.'6 literacyis only significant These resultsdo not imply that climate is not causally involved in explainingCV scores-only that climate is The statisnot probably a directcausalpredictor. moderate tical relationship between baby-holdingand climate (r = .530 with the dichotomizedclimate score) suggests the possibilitythat climate may operatebehindbaby-holding sense.Whereit is cold, thebest way in a causalortemporal warm and safe (before modem, centrally to keep babies or heatedhouses)may be to keep them wrapped swaddled cradleor cradleboard day andnightin a separate (Whiting or 1981).Thatway theycouldbe movedaround stowedfor safetyandbe keptwarmat the sametime.In otherwords,a cold climate may make baby-holdingand high caretaker contact disadvantageous,17 whereas a warmer climate makes baby-holdingpossible. This associationbetween climate and baby-holding would explain the puzzling betweenclimateandCV scores. asymmetrical relationship With one exception(Korea),10 out of 11 societies in the samplewith 5 or morecold monthsare low or low/moderbut is ate on baby-holding, baby-holding more variablein warmerclimates.Of the 37 societies with 4 or fewer cold months,29%have low or low/moderate baby-holding.

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While our resultscast doubton the notion thatclimate directly affects CV score, the Munroetheory about the communicative efficiency of the CV syllablemay still deBut serve consideration. climate (as measuredby number of cold months)may not be a very good indicatorof the frequencyof communicationout of doors. We need to of communication moredimeasurethe frequency outdoor rectly.And we may needto considerthe contextof talking. For example, the environmentmay influence the freA quency of outdoorcommunication. good deal of open at would allow communication a distance,butheavy space flora (as in a rain forest or dense woods) is less likely to Second,the resultregarding permitsuch communication." for meannumber syllablesin a wordmightbe accounted of If CV the Munroetheoryof communicative efficiency. by syllables providemore phoneticcontrastthanothersyllables, the more syllablesthereare in a word,the more CV syllables might be needed for clarity. This possibility shouldbe investigated. efforts We arejust at the beginningof possibleresearch in variation CV scores.There to explainthe cross-language may be more accuratemodels to test, and there may be otherpossible causes, indirector direct.Also, we may not the variablesconsidbe properlyinterpreting independent ered so far. For example, high baby-holdingmight be and interaction a high demeasuringhigh caretaker-child In gree of baby-talkdirectedat the infant.'9 the hope that to otherswill be motivated explorethisnew domainof lanwe relationships, would like to concludeby guage-culture a little about other possible causes of higher speculating In CV scoresandhow they mightbe investigated. particuis directed to the possible usefulness of lar, the reader genuine experimentsthat would manipulatesome of the variables.For yearsnow, social/culpossible independent tural anthropologistshave talked about experimentally In modelingand testingpossibleexplanations. the domain considered of language-culture here,thatposrelationships sibilitymay now be at hand. Munroeet al. (1996) haveassumedthatCV syllablesare thanotherkindsof syllables.This moreclearlyunderstood in needs to be testedby experiments different assumption Such studiesshouldnot be confinedto subenvironments. jects speakingthe same language,in case the differential of intelligibility differentsequencesof soundvariesby lanFor guage and/orenvironment. example, CVCV may be but moreintelligibleat a distancethanothercombinations, with littleamnot in all languagesor only in environments bientnoise. relatedto CV Whileclimatewas no longersignificantly score when baby-holdingand mean numberof syllables per word were addedto the multipleregressionequation, coefficientfor climatewas still not close the standardized to zero.This suggeststhattheremightbe some directeffect of climate,but only in cold climates.Accordingto Harris

(1968:42), John Arbuthnot ([1733]1971) thought that northern languagesmight have more consonantsbecause people wouldbe afraidto open theirmouthsandlet in the to cold air.It mightbe adaptive morecomfortable) keep (or the mouthclosed as much as possible where it is cold.20 Stringingconsonantstogetherwould allow the mouthto with remainmostly closed more of the time, as compared a vowel afterevery consonant.The possiblecomputting forteffect of a low CV scorein a cold climatecouldbe inAnd, in this case, the experivestigatedexperimentally. mentswould not have to use subjectswho speakdifferent is languages.Moreover,if evaporation fasterwherethe air is cold (becausethe air is drier),keepingthe mouthclosed as much as possible might be healthieras well as more in one could therebyminimizeevaporation comfortable; the mouthandthroat.2'This last possibilityshouldalso be amenable experimental to investigation. in could narExperiments the field or in the laboratory row downthe causalpossibilities,andso couldotherkinds and of researchincludingethnohistorical, cross-historical, studies.Forexample,one couldmakeethnocross-cultural tests using diachronicdata; historicaland cross-cultural data on possible causes that come from earlierpoints in time thanthe dataon CV scores could confirmor disconfirmassumptions aboutwhatis cause andwhatis effect. In studies of dialectcommunitiesand addition,comparative individualscould also be conductedto test the predictors For here and otherpossible predictors. example, reported do individuals who wereheld moreoftenas babies(assuming that could be established)use more CV syllables in their speech? Do people who spend more time out of in climates,use moreCV sylladoors,particularly warmer that bles in theirspeech?Or is it rather people who spend moretime out of doorsin cold climatesuse fewerCV syllables in their speech? Finally, do more educatedpeople use fewer CV syllablesin theirspeech,as the literacytheory wouldseem to imply? These variousspeculationsare not mutuallyexclusive. The causes of high CV scores may be manyor few. Only studiesthat look at more than more research, particularly one possiblecauseat a time, using multivariate techniques such as multipleregressionanalysis,will tell us. We hope will thatinvestigators soon tryto test these (andother)explanationsof variationin CV scores. Whateverthe outcomes of futurestudies,the findingsreported here andby Munroe et al. (1996) and Munroe and Silander(1999) show thatthe degreeto whichsyllablesareCV in formis a and that measurable predictable linguisticvariable offersa new windowontolanguage-culture relationships. Notes was completed Most Acknowledgments. of this research in the Institutes Comparative Anthropological during Summer in fundedby the NationalScienceFoundation a Research,

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grantto the HumanRelationsArea Files. While thatgrantdid not directly fund our work, discussions we had during the Institutes,particularlywith RobertL. Munroe,influenced the direction of our research.This study builds on the pioneering researchof RobertL. Munroeand Ruth H. Munroe (the latter unfortunatelynow deceased). They are responsible for many of the scores we use here, and we are grateful for their help and advice. We are also gratefulto Michael Burton,Carmella Moore, and Leila Monaghanfor their help and advice as well as the anonymous reviewers for their many valuable suggestions. 1. As of 1955-56, when the firstauthorwas in Samoa. 2. The VC syllable may also not provide as much contrast as the CV syllable (Flanagan1965: 224, as referredto in Munroe et al. 1996: note 2). 3. We thanka reviewerfor posing this question. 4. We thank Robert L. Munroe for providing us with the CV scores for these additionalseven cases. The CV scores on the othercases were obtainedfrom Munroeet al. (1996). 5. Historically related samples do not necessarily have higher correlations(see Ember 1971). However, historicalrelatedness may decrease sample variance,and when this happens a researchermay falsely conclude that a result is significant when it is not (Dow et al. 1984). Ratherthan eliminating historically related cases, more recent solutions for Galton's in problemconsider autocorrelation the predictivemodels and test for its possible effects, independentof the theoreticalpredictors (BurtonandWhite 1991; Dow et al. 1984). 6. The current version of the HRAF indexing system, which is known as the Outline of CulturalMaterials (OCM) and consists of more than770 subjectcategories, is described in Murdocket al. (1987). See Ember(1997) for the evolution of HRAF as a not-for-profitresearch organizationand as a materialson the culturesof collection of full-text ethnographic the world. 7. With regard to the scoring system, one reviewer has raised two importantmethodological questions. The first is word list (such as the core vocabularylist) why a standardized was not employed. Such a list would tend to minimize specialist vocabularyand increasethe proportionof commonly used words. The Munroes did in fact try to employ standardized word lists, but they did not get sufficientnumbersof comparable words to make this methodpracticable(RobertL. Munroe, personal communication).The same reviewer asked why the CV score was computedby the word and then averagedacross words ratherthanusing the syllable as the unit of analysis.The Munroes (RobertL. Munroe,personalcommunication)chose the word as the unit becausethey were concernedthatmultiple syllables in a word would not have semanticor morphological independence.If the presenceof one type of syllable in a multiple-syllable word influences the choice of anothersyllable in some way, the notion of independenceof units requiredfor most statisticalanalyses is violated. On the other hand, as the reviewer points out, the scores for CV proportionswill differ somewhat if the word or the syllable is used as the unit of analysis.We thereforetry to correctfor this possibility here by controllingfor the averagenumberof syllables in a word. 8. Another,presumablymore conservativeway of measuring consonant-vowel alternation-omitting sonorantsand "h"' sounds in calculating CV scores (because sonorantsand "h"

sounds share some featureswith vowels)-also discriminated in the same direction between the warmer and cold cases (Munroeet al. 1996). All the CV scores reportedhere and by Munroe et al. (1996) were calculated independently by Stephen Winters, who (at the time) was unawareof any hypotheses to be tested. 9. The first and second authorsindependently coded degree of baby-holding;the few cases of disagreementwere resolved by discussion. Almost all of the informationcoded was found in HRAF (OCM) subjectcategory854 ("Infant Care"). 10. Since the baby-holding score is designed to measure the degree to which the baby has body contact with the caretaker(hearingthe heartbeatand sensing the regularrhythmof walking or working with repetitive motions), we decided ahead of time not to count a case as high in baby-holdingif a baby was carriedmost of the day on a caretakerwith a hard material(e.g., a cradleboard) between the baby and the caretaker.But that kind of carryingis probablyunlikely anyway; Ayres (1973:392) reports that although cradleboardsappear do designed for portability,most societies with cradleboards not regularlycarry infants on them. Rather,cradleboardsare used to hold and protect the infant while the caretakeris engaged in other activities. Ayres (1973:399) also notes that the effect of baby-holding on regular rhythm in music is less strongin cold climates probablybecause the wearingof layers of clothing will attenuatethe reward value of body contact with the caretaker.Because the amountof clothing worn between the caretaker the baby is too hardto judge from ethand nography (and varies by season), we did not consider the amountof clothing in ourcoding. 11. We use the data in Maddieson (1984) on number of phonemesin 23 of the samplelanguages,and we thankRobert L. Munroefor suggesting this analysis and providingus with the data. 12. Maddieson (1984) provides data on vowel-consonant ratio for the same 23 cases referredto in note 11. We thank Robert L. Munroe for suggesting this analysis and providing us with the data. 13. The dependentvariable,CV score, is an intervalvariable, as is called for in multiple regression analysis. While numberof cold months is technically an intervalscore, Munroe et al. 1996 (Robert L. Munroe,personalcommunication) did not expect it to predictin a linearway. Only when the climate is cold, as they define it, would they expect people to spend a substantialportion of the time indoors. Therefore,in our multiple regressionmodel, we treatedclimate as a "dummy" or dichotomizedvariable-5 or more cold monthsversus fewer than5 cold months-following the reasoningand measurementprocedurein Munroeet al. (1996). Literacyis also a dummy variable (literate versus nonliterate).A reviewer has questionedthe use of multiple regressionbecause literacy occurs only in nine cases and because there is some heteroskedasticityof variancein the errorterm for the prediction of CV score from cold versus warm climate. In regardto the distribution literacy,Kleinbaumand Kupper(1978) say that of dichotomizing an independent variable is recommended in multipleregressionanalysiswhen the variableis unevenlydisIf tributed. anything, cases shouldmake then,havingfew literate it more difficult for literacyto have a significanteffect. But it does have a significant effect. With regard to the objection

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in about heteroskedasticity the errorterm for the climate predictor, it is present only when climate is the only predictor specified. When we examinedthe residuals in the more complete model, i.e., the one that specifies all three predictors ratherthanjust one, therewas no evidence of heteroskedasticity in the errorterm. 14. One of the reviewerssuggestedthis analysis. 15. Similarly, variation in climate also seems to predict variation in CV scores within language families. There were three language families in the original Munroe et al. (1996) sample that had variationin climate (RobertL. Munroe,personal communication).In all three of these families (AndeanNadene), warmerclimate predicts Equatorial,Indo-European, a higher mean CV score. To be sure, this result (3 out of 3) could occur 12.5% of the time by chance (if CV score were not related to climate), but the parallel with the significant finding describedin this paragraph provides additionalconfirmation that common ancestryor diffusion cannot explain the results reportedhere andpreviously(Munroeet al. 1996). And in a recent study, Munroeand Silander(1999) have replicated the climate-CV score relationshipwithin four languagefamilies. 16. We also used stepwise regressionanalysis to allow the computerto choose a model that fits the data. With the variables climate, literacy,baby-holding,and mean numberof syllables as possible independentpredictors,the computereliminates climate from the model. When the doubtfullyratedcases are eliminated, the stepwise regression analysis removes climate and literacy. 17. The Inuit method of carryingthe baby underthe parka is adaptedto extremecold. 18. We thanka reviewerfor this suggestion. 19. As one reviewer suggested, baby talk could reinforce the learningof CV syllables. Leila Monaghan (personalcommunication) is currently investigating the relationship between languagelearningtechniquesand CV scores. 20. After we wrote the first draft of this paper, Robert L. Munroe (personal communication) pointed out that Harris (1968:42) cites John Arbuthnot ([1733]1971) as having thought that northernlanguagesmight have more consonants because people would be afraidto open theirmouthsand let in the cold air. 21. We thank Dr. Robert Moore, a sleep researcherand physician in Irvine,CA, for this suggestion.

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Murdock,GeorgeP. Clellan, S. Ford,AlfredE. Hudson, Leo RaymondKennedy, W. Simmons,andJohnW. M. Whiting 1987 Outlineof Cultural Materials. reviseded. New Ha5th AreaFiles. Relations ven,CT:Human Naroll, Raoul HRAFProbability Sci1967 TheProposed Sample.Behavior ence Notes 2:70-80. (See also The HRAF QualityControl ScienceNotes2:81-88.) SampleUniverse.Behavior Piker,Steven Isaac of and in 1964 An Examination Character Socialization aThai of WashPeasant Ph.D.dissertation, University Community. ington.Source14in theHRAFCollectionof Ethnography. Tylor, EdwardB. the of 1888 Ona Methodof Investigating Development Instiand of tutions; Appliedto Lawsof Marriage Descent.Journal Institute GreatBritain Ireof and the RoyalAnthropological land18:245-269.

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