Iconic Sounds
Jun. 4th, 2021 02:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithI'm fascinated by this article about iconic sounds, which are comprehensible beyond language. Scientists have identified about 30 of them.
This is interesting because many species have a set of different calls, each of which has a meaning such as "come," "food," or "danger." Some of these seem to be genetic (standard across all members of the species) while others are learned (thus varying by population groups). The human set seems to be the genetic version, a fossil rootkit of communication left by our ancestors -- probably very far back in the hominid tree. They are long gone, yet they live in us.
This is interesting because many species have a set of different calls, each of which has a meaning such as "come," "food," or "danger." Some of these seem to be genetic (standard across all members of the species) while others are learned (thus varying by population groups). The human set seems to be the genetic version, a fossil rootkit of communication left by our ancestors -- probably very far back in the hominid tree. They are long gone, yet they live in us.
