ECHNICal co ○MMEN statistics were distorted by WALS's data fication, which truncated the high ends Comment on Phonemic Diversity scales(2) For example, WALS binned the vowel qual- ity inventories into three groups: small (2 to 4 Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model qualities, medium (s to qualitis, and lage of Language Expansion from Africa ity inventory varies from 2 to 20 and is distrib- Ited unequally among the geographic regions (4). Most large vowel quality inventories appear in Eurasia, whereas only small inventories can be found in the americas and australia. The Ger- Atkinson(Reports, 15 April 2011, p. 346)reported a declined trend of phonemic diversity manic languages and the wu Chinese dialects from Africa that indicated the african exodus of modern e his claim was only have the largest vowel quality inventories in the upported when the phonemic diversities were binned into Analyses using world, mostly larger than 10-for example, the raw data without simplification suggest a decline from central Asia from africa Standard Swedish has at least 16 vowel quali- ties, and the Donda Wu spoken in southem A kinson()analyzed the phoneme num- simplified(the exact counts of vow Shanghai has 20 vowel qualities. In contrast, few g bers of 504 languages around the world tones, and consonants ) Languages fron languages from Africa have more than 10 vowel O and found a strong inverse relationship show higher diversities of vowel qualities qualities(Fig. IB). Therefore, a lower limit of between the phonemic diversity and distance from (Fig. 1B). Therefore, we argued that seven qualities for large inventory in WALS's an inferred origin in Africa, which supports an African origin of modem languages. Although statistically significant declined trend of phonen Vowel quality Vowel quality diversity from Africa can be observed from the inventory nalyses of his normalized data set, his conclu- sion was questionable because of the simplifica tion of the phoneme inventories. The simplified data used in Atkinson's analy- ses were obtained directly from the World Atlas of Language Structures(WALS)(2), where the 5o品E8o phoneme numbers of the languages were simply kind of simplification of the data lost most in- <.*:%Tone inventory Tone inventory ormation of the phonemic diversity and might have resulted in bias conclusion. For example, to more than 80 among the world languages (3), while only five levels were counted in Atkinson's 503sE9oS We collected a new data set of world pho- nemic diversity, including 579 languages from 95 linguistic families(table S1). The phoneme Consonant ventories were displayed without any simplifi- inventory cation. To balance among the linguistic families we excluded 69 samples of some well-studied lin- guistic families(ie, Indo-European, Austronesia and Sino-Tibetan) from our analyses. This made our data comparable to Atkinsons(table S2) Our analyses were based on the remaining 510 languages. WALS maps Total Phoneme tkinson's normalized data set, the diversities of Total Phoneme Diversity vowel quality, tone, and consonant(Fig. 1A)all exhibit significant declines from Africa to the rest of the world. however. the declines from africa will not be that pronounced when the data are ne fe scences, ya and Lite Fudan University. hai 200433 China ic distribution of the phonemic diversities of the worlds languages. (A) Simplified *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ies used by WALS (B) Exact phoneme inventory counts and the corresponding total lhui.fudan@gmail.com www.sciencemag.orgScieNceVol33510FebrUary2012 657Comment on “Phonemic Diversity Supports a Serial Founder Effect Model of Language Expansion from Africa” Chuan-Chao Wang, Qi-Liang Ding, Huan Tao, Hui Li* Atkinson (Reports, 15 April 2011, p. 346) reported a declined trend of phonemic diversity from Africa that indicated the African exodus of modern languages. However, his claim was only supported when the phonemic diversities were binned into three or five levels. Analyses using raw data without simplification suggest a decline from central Asia rather than from Africa. Atkinson (1) analyzed the phoneme num￾bers of 504 languages around the world and found a strong inverse relationship between the phonemic diversity and distance from an inferred origin in Africa, which supports an African origin of modern languages. Although a statistically significant declined trend of phonemic diversity from Africa can be observed from the analyses of his normalized data set, his conclu￾sion was questionable because of the simplifica￾tion of the phoneme inventories. The simplified data used in Atkinson’s analy￾ses were obtained directly from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) (2), where the phoneme numbers of the languages were simply binned into three or five levels. However, this kind of simplification of the data lost most in￾formation of the phonemic diversity and might have resulted in bias conclusion. For example, the consonant inventory varies from less than 10 to more than 80 among the world languages (3), while only five levels were counted in Atkinson’s analyses. We collected a new data set of world pho￾nemic diversity, including 579 languages from 95 linguistic families (table S1). The phoneme in￾ventories were displayed without any simplifi￾cation. To balance among the linguistic families, we excluded 69 samples of some well-studied lin￾guistic families (i.e., Indo-European, Austronesian, and Sino-Tibetan) from our analyses. This made our data comparable to Atkinson’s (table S2). Our analyses were based on the remaining 510 languages. Judged from the original WALS maps and Atkinson’s normalized data set, the diversities of vowel quality, tone, and consonant (Fig. 1A) all exhibit significant declines from Africa to the rest of the world. However, the declines from Africa will not be that pronounced when the data are not simplified (the exact counts of vowel qualities, tones, and consonants). Languages from Eurasia show higher diversities of vowel qualities and tones (Fig. 1B). Therefore, we argued that Atkinson’s statistics were distorted by WALS’s data simpli￾fication, which truncated the high ends of the scales (2). For example, WALS binned the vowel qual￾ity inventories into three groups: small (2 to 4 qualities), medium (5 to 6 qualities), and large (7 to 14 qualities). Actually, the basic vowel qual￾ity inventory varies from 2 to 20 and is distrib￾uted unequally among the geographic regions (4). Most large vowel quality inventories appear in Eurasia, whereas only small inventories can be found in the Americas and Australia. The Ger￾manic languages and the Wu Chinese dialects have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world, mostly larger than 10—for example, the Standard Swedish has at least 16 vowel quali￾ties, and the Dônđäc Wu spoken in southern Shanghai has 20 vowel qualities. In contrast, few languages from Africa have more than 10 vowel qualities (Fig. 1B). Therefore, a lower limit of seven qualities for large inventory in WALS’s TECHNICALCOMMENT Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology, School of Life Sciences, and Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433 China. *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lihui.fudan@gmail.com Fig. 1. Geographic distribution of the phonemic diversities of the world’s languages. (A) Simplified phonemic diversities used by WALS. (B) Exact phoneme inventory counts and the corresponding total phoneme diversity. www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 335 10 FEBRUARY 2012 657-c on February 9, 2012 www.sciencemag.org Downloaded from