A recent Wired article cites the following:
The pitches in musical scales are likely derived from language. Turns out, aspects of spoken English and Mandarin correlate to the intervals between notes in a chromatic scale (the black and white piano keys in an octave).
Unfortunately, there’s nothing more than this offered as proof. What a bold statement to make but then not back up. Anyone out there know anything about this or where to get more details on this?