I heard an interview on NPR this morning with a woman from England who is a vocal teacher. She said when she heard an acquaintenance of hers make snoring sounds, she though it sounded like the snorer had a weak soft palate. So she developed some singing exercises designed to reduce snoring caused by weak soft palate. (She pointed out that there are other causes of snoring, such as enlarged tonsils.) She sang one of the exercises during the interview. I think the exercises are available on CD somewhere.
This led me to wonder whether some languages make more use of the soft palate than others, and if so, whether there is less snoring in certain countries.
If anyone knows of cross-cultural statistics for snoring and the causes thereof, it’s probably going to be someone on the SDMB.
So does anyone know??