We don't usually pay attention to how we position our teeth when biting into a tough steak or ripping soft kernels off a cob of corn. But a team of linguists has just reported in Science on their "biomechanical simulations of different human orofacial structures" to test the hypothesis that changes in dentition that accompanied a switch from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural one may have, perhaps accidentally, brought about the ability to pronounce "f" and "v" sounds.
These utterances that require the upper teeth to extend over the lower lip are called "labiodental sounds." They're harder to make than just extending the upper lip over the lower to produce "m," "w," and "p" sounds, which are common in many languages.
To continue reading go to Genetic Literacy Project, where this post first appeared.