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Made-Up Sounds Convey Meaning across Cultures scientificamerican.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scientificamerican.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sounds Studied as Origins of Human Language
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND According to a
Live Sciencereport, basic human vocalizations may have been vital in the development of the first human languages. Linguist Marcus Perlman of the University of Birmingham and his colleagues asked more than 800 participants, who spoke 25 different languages, to listen to sounds produced by English speakers and assign one of six words to each. The intended meaning of the sound was included in the six available words, which were grouped into six categories based upon people, animals, objects, quantifiers, and demonstratives thought to have been important to the survival of early humans. The words included child, man, woman, tiger, snake, deer, knife, fire, rock, water, meat, fruit, gather, cook, hide, eat, sleep, dull, sharp, big, small, good, bad, and this or that. Overall, the researchers found that people could accurately identify the intended meaning of the vocalizations more than 60 percent of