Primal consonants and the evolution of consonant inventories

What is it about?

We have identified the "primal consonants" of human languages - a small set of five consonant types that most likely were the original consonant sounds in early communication, and subsequently underwent change to form the modern-day inventory of 500 to 600 different consonants found in languages across the globe. The proposed primal consonants come from five sets: the stops made with full closure of the lips (labials), /p b m/, stops made with the tongue creating closure at the teeth or behind the teeth, /t d n/, stops made with the back of the tongue against the soft palate, /k g ŋ/, and two others, fricative /s/ and lateral /l/. Almost all languages use consonants from these five sets to make words. Research on 81 unrelated languages identified sound changes that this small set of consonants undergo to create new consonants. For example, /p/ can become /f/, /t/ can become /tʃ/ as in the ‘ch’ sound in gotcha. By contrast, it is very rare for consonants not included in the primal consonant set to change into one of the primal consonants.

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Why is it important?

The discovery of these primal consonants is a major contribution to our understanding of the origins of human language.