Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Are you trying to recreate the race theory ? There isn’t enough difference among human ethnicity to have sounds that you can’t do biologically.
However, as brain plasticity diminish with age, there is tons of sounds that non native can pronounce, look at French trying to speak english and struggling to get the th sound correctly Ze Ding is Tat or English speakers unable to get the french u sound properly Excousez moi. And this is for 2 countries which are pretty close geographically and culturally. I let you imagine what happen when an European try to learn an east-asian or sub saharian language, especially as an adult. IT’s not about genetic, just about not being used to these sounds
red_pigeon@lemm.ee 3 months ago
No idea what race theory is. But what you say does makes sense. As an adult, yes it is mostly dependent on not being used to. But as another user pointed out, there are some languages with clicks in it that are difficult for someone outside the community to speak.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
That’s just another sound. Each language only uses a subset of the full range of sounds the human mouth is capable of making. For example, Japanese doesn’t have an L sound, so people who learned Japanese as their mother tongue and then try to learn English as an adult will have trouble making the L sound. That’s not to say they are incapable of making it, but they are not used to making that sound with the speed and ease needed to use it as a normal part of speech. This can be learned with practice, but it takes time.
red_pigeon@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Oh no I didn’t mean incapacity. I meant fluency. One could be mildly or extremely fluent. Was wondering if origin makes a difference.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 3 months ago
No. If there is any truth in your “a child with X ancestry raised in Y land, can learn X easily” it’s only because their parents probably still use their native language.
Exposure teaches language, not genetics.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
All else being equal, I’m pretty sure it has no effect.