Sound Communication

We humans are pretty good at communicating with sounds other than words . But how much of this is hard-wired, and how much do we pick up from others?To find out, [researchers:foreigners] recorded the nonverbal sounds of people born deaf, as they responded to a range of positive and negative emotions. The idea being that if certain sounds are learned, deaf people won'[wouldn't:t] know how to make them.Then they played back those recordings for a group of hearing individuals, to see if they could decipher the emotion behind each sound. They guessed correctly more than chance would predict - deaf people's sounds of [amusement:clarity] and relief were pretty obvious. Which suggests we may be born primed to laugh or sigh.But the [listeners:customers] had a tough time with these two: . Those are both [expressions:sayings] of triumph. Here's a hearing person's .So the researchers say certain nonverbal sounds may require experience to learn - just as in language. They'll present the [findings:research] at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.Their theory fits nicely with a previous study, which found that shouts of triumph vary from culture to culture. Maybe that explains why some people can't stand the vuvuzela.