What the Irish language has in common with Mongolian, Basque and Dutch

The words for 'rough' and 'smooth' in many languages are part of a linguistic pattern stretching back more than 6,000 years

Researchers have found a pattern that has likely existed in a large language family for more than six millennia.

The Irish language is among 332 languages analysed for links between the sounds of speech and the sense of touch — a linguistic pattern stretching back more than 6,000 years. 

An international team of researchers from the University of Birmingham, Radboud University, and the University of British Columbia, analysed words for ‘rough’ and ‘smooth’ in a worldwide sample of 332 spoken languages and found that many feature similar sounds.