Nerdy linguistics question - vowel sounds and proximity?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve noticed there seems to be a correlation between certain vowel sounds (at least in European languages) and the proximity to the speaker of the notion being referenced.

For example, the sounds (sorry, don’t know the official phonetics symbols) “e” and “i” seem to be used for things close to the speaker, whereas “a”, “o” and “u” seem to designate distant things.

e.g. this, these, me, here -or- German dies, French “ceci”, “ici”
vs. you, those, that, French la`, cela, German das

I know there are a lot of exceptions, and I’ve no idea if (for example) Asian languages follow this pattern at all. However to me it does seem there is at least some correlation.

I have a couple of theories:

  1. it’s due to the first sounds we make as infants for things close to us, which are somewhat independent of culture (?)

  2. these words all derive from some ancient Indo-European root words.

Anyone know the truth?

2

This is close to being a linguistic universal. If not found in every language in the world, it sure is found in lots and lots of languages all over the world.

For example, in the Tamil language of South India, “this” is itu, “that” is atu.

In Hindustani, “this” is yih, “that” is vah (or voh).

There is a certain direct symbolism that explains why the close front vowel /i/ is used for near things, while the phonetically opposite open back vowel /a/ is used for far things.

To pronounce /i/, the tongue has to move right up close to the palate, leaving only a teeny space for the sound to go through. To pronounce /a/, the tongue is lowered and drawn back, making a big wide space for the sound to go through.

I wish all “why” questions in linguistics could be this easy to answer!