2178: What is Whispering? Dec 1, 2020

Whispering is something that everyone knows intuitively but might not be able to explain exactly.

Whispering is a process by which the vocal folds, sometimes called vocal chords, are not vibrating, though air still passes through. Therefore while all the processes of sound production above the larynx remains the same as in normal speech, rather than oscillating between voiceless and voiced sounds, the latter of which is determined by whether the vocal folds vibrate, whispering uses oscillation between voiceless sounds and whisper. That means that distinctions between voiced sounds like [b, d, g] and voiceless sounds, the counterparts here being [p, t, k] are minimal, and AI technology still struggles to understand this. In general, although whispering takes less energy overall, the vocal folds actually get more strained.

1753: Infants Can Discern any Phoneme Oct 2, 2019

Adults can often seem to struggle more with developing new language skills than very young children, especially when it comes to pronunciation. There are lots of little reasons for adults having difficulty with grammars etc., and certainly one or two myths around it, but one thing that's easily noticeable is that adults tend to struggle with accents, while children don't, not only because they have more adaptable larynxes from not speaking in (usually) one way most of the time, but also they can actually discriminate between sounds better. Infants can hear the difference in every phoneme more or less, and lose that ability after a short time. They continue to use the ones they hear and get positive feedback for pronouncing, and drop the rest. However, babies do not necessarily discriminate between illegal syllables in the given language, but knowledge of sound constraints must logically follow from gaining knowledge of the sounds first.

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1605: adam's apple May 7, 2019

Adam's apples are more prominent on men than women, so it was deemed fitting to name it after the first man, Adam (אדם). It doesn't look much like an apple, but that's because the biblical imagery doesn't end there. The thyroid cartilage of the larynx is usually referred to as Adam's apple after the idea that a piece of the forbidden fruit, popularly conceived of as an apple was lodged in Adam's throat. For more on why the forbidden fruit is referred to as an apple, see here.
Over the last few days, there have been posts about the larynx, so read all about the larynx here.

1604: How Birds Have Such a Vocal Range: Syrinx | May 6, 2019

Most of the sounds produced by human speech is done through the tongue, lips, nasal tract, larynx, and teeth. Birds have very few of those physical attributes, save tongue, and yet are able to produce an amazing range of notes. This is because, instead of a larynx, they have a syrinx, which is a type of larynx, but rather than being at the top of the esophagus, it is at the bottom. They also have two sets of vocal folds (human have only one) and are able to manipulate them both separately at the same time. This is how they are able to produce much of the range of sounds they can, though their tongue and beaks do play a factor as well.

For even more on 'syrinx', see here.

1602: larynx, pharynx, and syrinx May 4, 2019

Humans are able to make different vibrations, such as in the difference between [s] and [z] using the larynx. The etymology of this word is not totally certain, though it has meant 'upper windpipe' since the days of Latin; what is more certain is that is was influenced by the word 'pharynx', which is also a word for the windpipe, particularly in invertebrates, again from Latin. Still related though is the word 'spirynx', which is a larynx in the lower windpipe that birds have, except rather than just having Latin roots, this word comes from the name of the nymph in the story of Pan. In the story, the pursued nymph asked to be turned into reeds to escape, but Pan turned them into 'pan pipes' to play. The physiology of the syrinx will be discussed this week.
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1119: Helium Doesn't Change a Voice's Pitch Jan 1, 2018

New Years' Eve, yesterday, was a day of partying for many, and maybe involved helium balloons. If you have happened to inhale helium—and likely even if you haven't—you may think that it makes the pitch of one's voice higher, but this isn't exactly true. The pitch of one's voice itself is not greatly affected by air-quality, so long as there is air at all. If that were the case, not only would this make it hard to comprehend two people with a relatively high and relatively low voice respectively in the same room, for instance, but also keep in mind that people can control the frequency of the movement of their vocal cords in order to alter the pitch of their voices, as is typical especially when singing. Your ears do not deceive you too much though, as what helium does do is to make the air travel faster, and the frequency of the airwaves passing through the larynx does change. This is also why records that are sped up can make whatever is being played back have a higher pitch than otherwise, or why slowed voices are lower.
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1073: Origins of Language Nov 16, 2017

No one knows what the original language sounded like, or even if there ever were such a language. Really, the furthest back that people can estimate ancient languages is a few thousand years, depending upon the language family. Still, it is thought for various, mainly biological and anthropolicical reasons that language began as far back as 100,00 BCE. This is largely to do with adaptations in the brain and larynxes of early humans. It is debated whether language developed before this, but there is really no way to know, and this also raises the question of what constitutes a language. Studying other animals can lend some insights however; some believe that language wasn't created from nowhere but developed as a replacement for other forms of communication including grooming, or some form of involuntary sounds like laughter or cries, which can be supported by studying monkeys.

1020: Mucosa Sep 24, 2017

There is somewhat of a stereotype that opera singers are larger than average. Though generalizations like these are often unfounded, David Drexler et al. from the University of Iowa found that a certain amount of fat on the vocal cords can help a singer sound better. A mucosa on the vocal chords softens the impact when they come together, but extra amounts can improve the quality of sound. It was also found that the mucosa can add more vibrational energy to air as it is exhaled, which also allows opera singers to perform better. There are many other factors that come into this as well, and it is not at all the case that all opera singers are overweight at all, but having extra fat in general could mean there is some extra fat on the mucosa. Also, sometimes when one has scarring on the throat, surgeons can inject more fat onto the larynx for this same reason.

1019: Physical Adaptations for Speech Sep 23, 2017

Though other species do have the ability to communicate in a number of different ways, none have as sophisticated a method as human speech. This is for a number of biological reasons, including the fact that humans have such large brains, but quite importantly as well, we have a nerve in the brain that allows for much more control over the tongue as compared to other animals, and also, about 60,000 years ago, the hyoid developed which can better support the larynx, used for creating sounds. This all together allows the wide range of sounds that can be recreated that humans use, but unfortunately due to the configuration of the glottis and other parts of the throat, humans are much more likely—up to ten times more likely than other primates—to choke. Whether or not you think that is a fair trade-off, you'll still be able to voice your opinions due to a series of biological adaptations within the last few hundred-thousand years.