Coronavirus: Isolation and Aspiration
Can strongly aspirated consonants increase transmission of COVID-19?
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Episode Notes
Why has Japan been less affected by the global pandemic than the United States? One theory suggests that the Japanese language has weakly aspirated consonants compared with English. Which might mean that Japanese people are less likely to “spray” while speaking and therefore less likely to transmit the virus. Does that make sense? John looks at the linguistic evidence.
Podcast production by Mike Vuolo.
