I know some guys hear are historians and u/AlfredicEnglishRules is an anthropologist. I was listening to a podcast and someone brought up some groups in America use slang predominately because their biology makes English difficult for them. I'm wondering how biology affects language? Is it just an IQ thing, or are there subtle differences in vocal chords? Or is it bullshit?
I can understand cultural differences shaping languages. And I've heard evolutionary differences, like early men having to increase their vocabularies to include dogs in their hunting.
Finally we get to admit that some people aren't as intelligent as everyone says they are. Let's try an easy sentence with some difficult words, "we looted Worcester then went down the Thames to loot Leicester square for a lads night out."
You can read that fairly well, but there are those who can't say it. England, do you know anyone like that?
Ok, all kidding aside there are papers about intelligence and pronunciation. It gets into a subject that anthropologists don't enjoy talking about. Well are the biggest racists because our entire job is to explain the other to normal people. As someone else point out, the Japanese don't pronounce L and R as different. That's because they don't have those letters and use a rolled L in their language. We can say the same for the Welsh ll sound. It's not in English, but we can find it in Polish, Navajo and even Mongolian.
But, trying to explain that to the common man has problems so the simple statement like it's not a common word, or they shortened it to save time doesn't work. Soz the explanation is given that the other can't pronounce it. There is a whole section of anthropology proving this, and it's older than most of the other forms of it. Even papers written today have stuff like that in it.
Navajos are stupid and need to be kept in their primitive state. The anthropologist says that with a bunch of softer words and makes it sound like they're helping. We need to protect the indigenous cultures from modernistic ideologies! It's incredibly racist, but they claim to be the good guy. Black people need to preserve their culture and you are racist for telling them to clean up. That's being used as a control method for the black culture. If black people get smart, then they won't vote Democrat or buy stupid products aimed specifically at them.
Someone else mentioned how brand names are used as the generic term. This is why Nintendo had a campaign to make sure people knew that their consoles were specific. We don't actually have a generic term for nappies or diapers. Baby strollers and prams are also brand names.
In parts of the US if they ask if you want coke, they mean soda. As opposed to Texas, especially Waco where they ask, "do you want Dr pepper or do you wish to sin against God and man?"
That's why I enjoy studying culture, the details are fascinating. History does the same for me. Combining the two means seeing a very different world from others. So yes, there are papers like that, but it's a sign of who is talking to who than actual evidence.