Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-rnj55 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-14T03:06:53.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The evolution of the human vocal tract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

W. Tecumseh Fitch
Affiliation:
Universität Wien, Austria
Get access

Summary

Speech is not language, but is important nonetheless

Speech (complex, articulated vocalization) is the default linguistic signaling mode for all human cultures, except when the audio-vocal modality is unavailable, as for the deaf. Though speech is the default linguistic modality, it is not the only possibility. Signed languages of the deaf are full, complex, grammatical languages, independent of but equivalent to spoken languages (Stokoe, 1960; Klima and Bellugi, 1979), and this demonstrates that speech is not the only signaling system adequate to convey language. Writing is another example of a visuo-manual system of linguistic communication, but since writing systems are typically “parasitic” representations of spoken systems, they illustrate the multi-modality of language less convincingly. One of the first distinctions to be made in studying language evolution is therefore that between speech (a signaling system) and language (a system for expressing thoughts, which can incorporate any one of several signaling systems). Many languages use the same word to designate both speech and language (e.g. German Sprache), and in English one often finds the word speech used as an exact synonym for language, showing how close these concepts are in everyday use. Throughout this book, I will use “speech” only in the narrow sense of complex articulated vocalizations, where “articulated” implies tight coordination between the supralaryngeal vocal tract and the larynx. Besides linguistic speech, other examples of articulated vocalization include infant babbling, “speaking in tongues,” nonsense speech, jazz scat singing, or Asian formant singing.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×