Universal Sounds of Human Emotion: A Global Study

Researchers analyzed 131 languages, revealing consistent vocal patterns for pain, joy, and disgust. This groundbreaking study sheds light on the evolutionary and social functions of human emotional expression.

Key Findings

1. Pain vocalizations: Consistent across cultures, featuring open vowels (e.g., “a”) and wide falling diphthongs (e.g., “ai” in “Ayyy!” or “aw” in “Ouch!”).
2. Joy and disgust: Less uniformity across cultures, contradicting expectations.
3. Vocalization vs. interjections: Distinct differences between emotional expressions.

The Study

Led by Maïa Ponsonnet, Katarzyna Pisanski, and Christophe Coupé, the research team investigated:

1. Linguistic diversity: 131 languages, including expressive interjections (e.g., “wow!”) and nonlinguistic vocalizations (e.g., screams, cries).
2. Vocal patterns: Vowel density maps revealed consistent vowel spaces for pain, disgust, and joy.
3. Evolutionary insights: Comparing human vocalizations to animal vocalizations provides clues to speech origins.

Implications

1. Universal emotional expression: Evidence supports adaptive and social functions of vocalizations.
2. Cultural variations: Joy and disgust expressions differ across cultures.
3. Future research: Expanded study to include more cultures and emotions.

Reference

Ponsonnet et al. (2024). Vowel signatures in emotional interjections and nonlinguistic vocalizations expressing pain, disgust, and joy across languages. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. DOI: 10.1121/10.0032454