How geographical features directly shape languages

Scientists have revealed that landscape features are key drivers of language diversity worldwide.

According to the study, threats to biodiversity could also endanger human languages, Discovery News reported.

Researchers Jacob Axelsen and Susanna Manrubia, who have compared language diversity in regions across the globe against 14 environmental variables such as temperature, precipitation, and altitude, found that mountains and rivers, play different roles in language.

The study also revealed that landscape roughness and river density predicted up to 80 percent of the language diversity in Africa, and up to 69 percent of the diversity in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific.

The researchers said that the factors affecting language diversity mimic those that affect biodiversity

The study was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.