Exploring the Universal Language of Pain and Emotion
Picture this: you’ve just accidentally slammed your finger in a door. It’s likely that you’d respond with a spontaneous vocal outburst, perhaps a loud “ouch!” or a sharp cry. This raises an interesting question: are these instinctive sounds similar worldwide, regardless of cultural background?
Humans are incredibly expressive with their voices. Beyond speaking, we laugh, groan, cry, and scream—these are what scientists refer to as nonlinguistic vocalizations. Additionally, we use interjections—single words like “ouch” or “wow”—to express emotions. These words are unique in that they stand alone and are not grammatically linked to other words.
It’s been established that every culture exhibits emotional vocalizations and interjections. However, the scientific community knows relatively little about how these expressions vary globally or why that might be. Our recent research delved into this mystery, specifically examining the vowel sounds in expressions of pain, disgust, and joy across over 130 languages. We aimed to discover if these emotional sounds consistently involve similar vowels across different languages and cultures, potentially offering insights into the evolutionary development of language and vocal communication.
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The foundational theory of our research is that the sounds we make are not random but have evolved to fulfill communicative purposes. For example, cries of pain tend to be loud, high-pitched, and jarring, designed to capture attention and solicit help. They are also often emitted with a wide-open mouth, which naturally leads to the production of an [a]-like vowel sound (as in “cat”). Try saying “ski” or “knee” with your mouth wide open—it’s quite challenging! In contrast, [i]-like vowels, which are associated with smiling, are easier to produce with a more closed mouth configuration.
Building on this concept, we hypothesized that specific vowels would be associated with certain emotions. For instance, we expected that interjections expressing pain would predominantly feature [a] vowels, those conveying joy would include many [i] vowels, and expressions of disgust would likely contain schwa-like vowels (as in “uh”), which might occur naturally during a grimace or gag.
To test these ideas, we gathered over 600 interjections representing pain, disgust, and joy from dictionaries of 131 languages spanning Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin America. Additionally, we collected thousands of words from these languages using large language databases. We then statistically analyzed the frequency of various vowels in these emotional expressions compared to their general use in each language.
In a secondary phase, we recorded 375 non-verbal sounds expressing pain, disgust, and joy from speakers of English, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Turkish. We analyzed these recordings acoustically to identify the vowels based on the resonance patterns in the vocal tract.
Our findings confirmed our predictions for pain expressions, revealing an unexpectedly high frequency of [a]-like vowels globally. However, the vowel patterns for joy and disgust were not as consistent across different cultures. When we expanded our focus to include nonlinguistic vocalizations, we observed clear vowel patterns linked with each emotion: open [a]-like vowels for pain, [i]-like vowels for joy, and central schwa-like vowels for disgust.
This research suggests that while humans may use specific sounds to convey different emotional states, the expression of pain through vocalizations is remarkably consistent worldwide, whether through distinct noises or interjections. These results also imply that some words may have developed from nonlinguistic vocalizations and that their acoustic properties might reflect their communicative functions to some extent.
The study of nonlinguistic vocalizations and interjections across cultures remains vastly underexplored. Our findings are just the beginning of what we hope will be a comprehensive exploration into the relationships between sound forms and their functions in human vocal behavior. This line of inquiry could illuminate the origins of vocal communication and, by extension, language itself. Meanwhile, it’s reassuring to know that if you shout in pain, most people around the world will understand, regardless of their language or cultural background.
If you are a scientist in the fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology, and have come across a recent peer-reviewed paper you’d like to discuss, please reach out to the Mind Matters editor at Scientific American, Daisy Yuhas, at dyuhas@sciam.com.
Note: The opinions and analyses in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Scientific American.
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Cameron Aldridge combines a scientific mind with a knack for storytelling. Passionate about discoveries and breakthroughs, Cameron unravels complex scientific advancements in a way that’s both informative and entertaining.