Most people around the world agree that the made-up word 'bouba' sounds round in shape, and the made-up word 'kiki' sounds pointy—a discovery that may help to explain how spoken languages develop, according to a new study.
Social Sciences
Nov 16, 2021
1
241
Hoover the "talking seal" famously imitated human speech. But can baby seals already adapt their voices to sounds? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Free University of Brussels ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 2, 2021
0
92
Researchers can predict what syllables a bird will sing—and when it will sing them—by reading electrical signals in its brain, reports a new study from the University of California San Diego.
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 23, 2021
1
182
Whistling while you work isn't just a distraction for some people. More than 80 cultures employ a whistled form of their native language to communicate over long distances. A multidisciplinary team of scientists believe that ...
Other
Sep 21, 2021
0
1276
Some songbirds learn to sing by listening to other birds. Some other animals can learn to copy sounds. But what does that tell us about human speech? Sonja Vernes from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 6, 2021
0
194
Bat conversations might be light on substance, according to researchers from the University of Cincinnati.
Plants & Animals
Jul 16, 2021
0
9
If you listen to songbirds, you will recognize repeated melodies or phrases. Each phrase is made up of distinct sounds, strung together. A study from researchers at McGill University has found that the song phrases of many ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2021
0
393
American writer and humorist Mark Twain, a master of language and noted lecturer, once offered, "The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause."
Plants & Animals
May 26, 2021
0
14
Neandertals—the closest ancestor to modern humans—possessed the ability to perceive and produce human speech, according to a new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including Binghamton ...
Evolution
Mar 1, 2021
3
9873
Humans learn to speak by mimicking speech sounds. Are there other mammals who can learn sounds by imitation? In an experimental study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and the Ludwig ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 22, 2020
0
62
