The article discusses how human vocalizations, particularly interjections like 'ouch' or expressions of pain, vary across cultures. Researchers examined over 130 languages to analyze vowel sounds in emotional vocalizations, seeking to determine if common patterns exist globally. Their findings suggest these sounds are not random but have evolved for effective communication, particularly to solicit attention and assistance in moments of distress. This research contributes valuable insights into the intersection of language, emotion, and human evolution, acknowledging the need for further exploration in this area to understand vocal expression diversity.
Pain cries are often loud, high-pitched and harsh to grab the attention of listeners and elicit aid, and often produced with a wide-open mouth.
Our species uses interjections to express emotions, which are standalone words that don't grammatically combine with other words, observable in every human culture studied.
Scientists know extremely little about how nonlinguistic vocalizations differ across cultures, and examining vowel sounds in these expressions could provide insights into evolutionary language development.
The central idea guiding our work was that the sounds people make are not arbitrary, but rather evolved to support their communicative functions.
Collection
[
|
...
]