Vocalizations

One of the points of departure for the idea of Rewritten Bible is the assumption that there was a relatively fixed Biblical text in front of the author of the respective Rewritten Bible composition. The present article, with the help of examples taken from Jubilees, argues that references to the Biblical text should not only consider the consonantal framework, but should also examine the vocalization of this consonantal framework.
On the other hand, and most pertinent to the argument, the different witnesses for the vocalization of Biblical Hebrew texts, especially the Masoretic text and the Samaritan reading tradition, preserve reading traditions which originate in the late Second temple period or even before. Thus, compositions of the Rewritten Bible genre may help to reconstruct the development of reading Biblical texts in this early period.
Generally, one should realize that vocalization has been a factor of no less importance ‒ as a source, a point of departure, or a matter of dissociation ‒ than the consonantal framework in both the course of textual transmission and the process of re-writing of Biblical compositions.

Whilst l-vocalisation is a common phenomenon in languages of the world, the vocalisation of rhotics seems to have a far more limited range. Vocalisations are however common among the many dialects of the Germanic language family. This paper will aim to address some of the factors which contribute to this state.
A vocalisation, as defined here, is where within the history of a language a former consonant loses its primary oral stricture and is perceived as a vowel. L-vocalisations have been widely observed and described, having occurred historically in languages such as French, Polish and Serbian and also are a common feature of many modern English dialects. R-vocalisations, on the other hand, have been observed in German, Dutch, English, Danish and other southern Scandinavian dialects, all of which belong to the Germanic family of languages, but are much rarer to find in other world languages. We usually find rhotics are deleted in historical lenition processes, cf. for example French and Catalan.
This paper shall show that these vocalisations can be explained by studying the development of the various rhotics in Germanic languages and factors regarding syllable structure and show that these ideally positioned the Germanic languages to allow rhotics to vocalise.
As these vocalisations have occurred in the separate daughter languages long after the languages split from each other it also raises interesting questions about how historical factors are stored in languages such that languages sharing a common source can undergo similar changes long after they have split. These implications for wider research and the tendencies of diachronic change which can occur within related languages shall also be briefly addressed.

This study analyzes the phenomenon of digital voice search queries against the background of the fluid and changing balance in the orality–literacy osmosis of different historical eras. In attempting to theoretically conceptualize the unique oral characteristics of this new digital feature, this article argues that as the result of technological considerations, voice querying manifests an attempt to discipline oral words – to pronounce them while thinking of their written form. The article also considers the oxymoron of ‘looking up’ information through spoken words; the effect of an interface that stresses the use of the oral words as an event; the devocalization of queries, as they transform into a written form; and the implications of browsing the Internet through oral word searches, especially for young children. It concludes that the integration of these oral features can be explained by the affordances of digital media on the one hand and the ‘revival’ of intuitive preprint features attempting to ease the cognitive demands of print culture on the other hand.

Marmosets and tamarins (Cebidae, Callitrichinae) constitute the most species-rich subfamily of New World monkeys and one of the most diverse phenotypically. Despite the profusion of molecular phylogenies of the group, the evolution of phenotypic characters under the rapidly-emerging consensual phylogeny of the sub-family has been little studied, resulting in taxonomic proposals that have limited support from other datasets. We examined the evolution of 18 phenotypic traits (5 continuous and 13 discrete), including pelage, skull, dentition, postcrania, life-history and vocalization variables in a robust molecular phylogeny of marmoset and tamarin monkeys, quantifying their phylogenetic signal and correlations among some of the traits. At the family level, our resulting topology supports owl monkeys (Aotinae) as sister group of Callitrichinae. The topology of the callitrichine tree was congruent with previous studies except for the position of the midas group of Saguinus tamarins, which placement as sister of the bicolor group did not receive significant statistical support in both Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian Inference analyses. Our results showed that the highest value of phylogenetic signal among continuous traits was displayed by the long call character and the lowest was exhibited in the home range, intermediate values were found in characters related to osteology and skull size. Among discrete traits, pelage and osteology had similar phylogenetic signal. Based on genetic, osteological, pelage and vocalization data, we present an updated genus-level taxonomy of Callitrichinae, which recognizes six genera in the sub-family: Callimico, Callithrix, Cebuella, Mico, Leontopithecus and Saguinus. To reflect their phenotypic distinctive-ness and to avoid the use of the informal " species group " , we subdivided Saguinus in the subgenera Leontocebus, Saguinus and Tamarinus (revalidated here).

This thesis is an investigation into the variation of the vocalisations that were emitted by wild populations of the Eurasian, or common otter (Lutra lutra) recorded at a holt in Fife, Scotland over a period of 6 years. An elusive mammal, relatively little is known about the vocalisations of this species. There has been very little research conducted on the several different otter species there are, and to my knowledge, only one known study having been conducted on captive Eurasian otter populations.
Using a video bank of audio and video footage comprising of 30s clips, the vocalisations were extracted and analysed using R software (version 3.1.2) and presented as spectrograms, oscillograms and power spectrums. Different parametric measures were recorded which included peak frequency (PF), highest frequency (HF), lowest frequency (LF), frequency difference (FD) and call duration (CD). A total of 81 sounds were extracted from the video clips for which 11 distinct vocalisation categories were defined as (1) Chitter, (2) Hiss, (3) Huff, (4) Lip Smack and Lip Smack Variant, (5) Mew, (6) Scream, (7) Short Whistle and Short Whistle Variant, (8) Toot Toot and Toot Toot Variant, (9) Whicker, (10) Whoomph and (11) Snort (single, double and triple).
There were 2 non-vocalisation sounds also recorded and categorised;              (1) Sneeze and (2) Shake.

Vocalization is the most common type of communication among anurans. Within vocal repertoire anurans produce
the advertisement and release calls, and both are useful for taxonomic approaches. Scinax eurydice is a hylid tree frog, endemic
from Atlantic Forest. Its advertisement call isknownonlyfromapopulationinitssoutherndistribution,StateofEspírito
Santo, Brazil. Besides, release calls within the genus Scinax are unknown. Herein we describe the release call of S. eurydice
and compared the advertisement call between northern andsouthernpopulationsofthespecies.Theadvertisementcallfrom
northern populations iscomposedoftwodistinctmultipulsednotesandisnotablydifferentfromsoutheasternpopulations,
which presents three notes. Studies on differences in the advertisement calls provide valuable information to distinguish cryptic
species, and help to understand patterns and functions of these behaviours in anuran assemblages.

The aim of this paper is to examine in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis the play’s paralanguage and its relevance to a reconstruction of performance style. In studying how the on-stage speech is being uttered, I have mainly focused on the “vocalizations”, that is, the actual sounds emitted, and on the “vocal characterizers”, that is, laughing, yelling, crying, etc., as well as the “vocal qualifiers”, that is, intensity, pitch height or extent of the on-stage speech. In this paper I have suggested that all the non-verbal sounds function as a means expressing the very emotions of the play’s characters. These paralinguistic elements play a special role in clarifying the ambiguity of the on-stage speech, justifying in this way their presence in the play.

How can we rethink the importance of voice in performance? How can we understand voice simultaneously as music and text, as sound and body, or as both personal and political?

This book explores voice across genres, media and cultures, inviting the reader to reassess established ways of analysing, enjoying and listening to voice. Using a wide range of case studies integrated with critical and philosophical frameworks, it makes audible the multiple ways in which voice contributes to how we perform identities. From opera and musical theatre to live art and immersive audio walks, Konstantinos Thomaidis presents voice as plural, elusive and ripe for reinvention.

The complex vocalization of Scinax cardosoi
from a population of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil is described and compared with available acoustic data for the other species of the S. ruber Clade. Three distinct types of high-pitched, pulsed calls were identified, and are referred to as "short", "long", and "trilled" calls. Short calls (16–66 ms) resemble squeaks, and consist of a pulsed signal (8–28 pulses/call) with regular amplitude modulations throughout their duration; the amplitude peak occurs at about the midpoint of the call duration. Long calls (268–518 ms) resemble giggles, and have lower amplitude than short calls; typically, they consist of pulsed note series (1–6 notes/call). Trilled calls resemble insect chirps and have the lowest amplitude of the three call types; they consist of long (1.1–3.0 s) pulsed note series (9–25 notes/call). Acoustic data are taxonomically informative in the Scinax ruber Clade and provide phenotypic characters diagnosing S. cardosoi in addition to those features proposed in its original description. The vocalization repertoire of S. cardosoi resembles the complex vocal repertoires (i.e., multiple call types emitted in variable combinations) of members of the S. catharinae Clade more than some species of the S. ruber Clade, which tend to have simpler call structures (i.e., a single type of multipulsed note).

Even among the understudied sirenians, African manatees (Trichechus senegalensis) are a poorly understood, elusive, and vulnerable species that is difficult to detect. We used passive acoustic monitoring in the first effort to acoustically detect African manatees and provide the first characterization of their vocalizations. Within two 3-day periods at Lake Ossa, Cameroon, at least 3367 individual African manatee vocalizations were detected such that most vocalizations were detected in the middle of the night and at dusk. Call characteristics such as fundamental frequency, duration, harmonics, subharmonics, and emphasized band were characterized for 289 high-quality tonal vocalizations with a minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 4.5 dB. African manatee vocalizations have a fundamental frequency of 4.65 ± 0.700 kHz (mean ± SD), duration of 0.181 ± 0.069 s, 97% contained harmonics, 21% contained subharmonics, and 27% had an emphasized band other than the fundamental frequency. Altogether, the structure of African manatee vocalizations is similar to other manatee species. We suggest utilizing passive acoustic monitoring to fill in the gaps in understanding the distribution and biology of African manatees.

The Samaritan text of Gen 8:22 and Exod 15:18 is vocalized in a way different from the MT: In Gen 8:22 the Samaritan text reads "'ad kol yeme ha-aretz", instead of MT "'od...", in Exod 15:18 the Samaritan text reads "'olam wa-'od", instead of MT "...wa-'ed". Both readings point to the existence of an eschatological concept in early Samaritan thinking, which expected a new world to come after the end of the present.

In the field of computer music, melodic based forms of
vocalizations have often been used as channels to access
subject’s queries and retrieve information from music
databases. In this study, we look at percussive forms of
vocalizations in order to retrieve rhythmic models
entrained by subjects in Samba culture. By analyzing
recordings of vocal percussions collected from randomly
selected Brazilian subjects, we aim at comparing emergent
rhythmic structures with the current knowledge about
Samba music forms. The database of recordings was
processed using a psychoacoustically inspired auditory
model and further displayed on loudness and onset
images. The analyses of emergent rhythmic patterns show
intriguing similarities with the findings in previous studies
in the field and put different perspectives on the use of
vocal forms in music information retrieval and
musicology.

The goal of this study is to utilize music theory principles to increase the effectiveness of existing manatee detection software, reducing boat collisions and manatee fatalities. The hypothesis states that if at least one music theory principle, including pitch, harmonic, and melodic content is utilized, then the effectiveness of the theoretical detection software will increase. The methods included recorded vocalizations being isolated in 90-second clips and processed into volume and pitch visualizers. Data from visualizations was used to simulate detection algorithms, the effectiveness of which were measured and compared. The hypothesis was correct, as the study found that manatee detection algorithms designed to assess audio on the basis of pitch, specifically noises in octave 8 and above, are most effective, more so even than the standard practice of detection by volume in dB. Therefore, detection by pitch identification algorithm is more effective than detection on the basis of volume in dB.

Determining whether a species’ vocal communication system is graded or discrete requires definition of its vocal repertoire. In this context, research on domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) vocalizations, for example, has led
to significant advances in our understanding of communicative functions. Despite their close relation to domestic pigs, little is known about wild boar (Sus scrofa) vocalizations. The few existing studies, conducted in the 1970s, relied on visual inspections of spectrograms to quantify acoustic parameters and lacked statistical analysis. Here, we use objective signal processing techniques and advanced statistical approaches to classify 616 calls recorded from semi-free ranging animals. Based on four spectral and temporal acoustic parameters — quartile Q25, duration, spectral flux, and spectral flatness — extracted from a multivariate analysis, we refine and
extend the conclusions drawn from previous work and present a statistically validated classification of the wild boar vocal repertoire into four call types: grunts, grunt-squeals, squeals, and trumpets. While the majority of
calls could be sorted into these categories using objective criteria, we also found evidence supporting a graded interpretation of some wild boar vocalizations as acoustically continuous, with the extremes representing
discrete call types. The use of objective criteria based on modern techniques and statistics in respect to acoustic continuity advances our understanding of vocal variation. Integrating our findings with recent studies on
domestic pig vocal behavior and emotions, we emphasize the importance of grunt-squeals for acoustic approaches to animal welfare and underline the need of further research investigating the role of domestication on
animal vocal communication.

Selçuk Artut: Duvarların Dili Olsa da Sussa | If These Walls Could Hush
Zilberman | Istanbul
18.09. – 02.12.2020
Writers/Yazarlar: Selçuk Artut, Kerim Atay, Serhat Kiraz, Siegfried Zielinski
Translation/Çeviri: Zeynep Nur Ayanoğlu
Proofreading/Düzelti: Evrim Altuğ, Selçuk Artut, Zeynep Nur Ayanoğlu, Gürem Özcan
Design/Tasarım: Bülent Bingöl
Photos/Fotoğraflar: Kayhan Kaygusuz (pp. 6-7, 14-17, 26-29, 34-35),
Selçuk Artut (pp. 32-33, 40-41, 46-47, 54-55, 60-61, 66-67, 74-87), Evrim Altuğ (pp. 72-73)
Printing House/Baskı Evi: A4 Ofset
Printing Coordination/Baskı Koordinasyonu: Gürem Özcan
This catalogue is printed 800 copies for Selçuk Artut’s exhibition titled If These Walls Could
Hush organized by Zilberman Gallery September 18 - December 2, 2020.

Sound moves us. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our responses to genuine
emotional vocalizations, be they heartfelt distress cries or raucous laughter. Here, we
present perceptual ratings and a description of a freely available, large database of natural
affective vocal sounds from human infants, adults and domestic animals, the Oxford Vocal
(OxVoc) Sounds database. This database consists of 173 non-verbal sounds expressing a
range of happy, sad, and neutral emotional states. Ratings are presented for the sounds
on a range of dimensions from a number of independent participant samples. Perceptions
related to valence, including distress, vocalizer mood, and listener mood are presented
in Study 1. Perceptions of the arousal of the sound, listener motivation to respond and
valence (positive, negative) are presented in Study 2. Perceptions of the emotional content
of the stimuli in both Study 1 and 2 were consistent with the predefined categories
(e.g., laugh stimuli perceived as positive). While the adult vocalizations received more
extreme valence ratings, rated motivation to respond to the sounds was highest for the
infant sounds. The major advantages of this database are the inclusion of vocalizations
from naturalistic situations, which represent genuine expressions of emotion, and the
inclusion of vocalizations from animals and infants, providing comparison stimuli for use
in cross-species and developmental studies. The associated website provides a detailed
description of the physical properties of each sound stimulus along with cross-category
descriptions.

Why do we shout oh! and ah!? Interjective processes in oral speech: from grammar to interactional approach. The case of vocalic interjections in service encounters situation
This work aims at reporting discursive and interactional functionings of the interjections oh and ah in contemporary spoken French. In the light of interactional linguistics and of Praxematics, we study these vocalizations on the evidence of ordinary speech data collected in interaction at work. A first skimming over the historic course of the notion of interjection allows to refute the firm traditional trend which makes it more or less impulsive marks: we shall assign rather to these particles a role of emotional enactments in the linguistic spectacularisation, which makes them pseudo-shouts, and shape intersubjectively the empathy. Syntactically, the exclamatory base and the inconsistency functioning of the interjections are similar in the forms of separation and other parataxis functionings, quite there by distinguishing them, to make them autonomous segments without explicit syntactical actantial relationships. Indeed, these sentences words are truly a case of implied predication.
We can also see under this holophrastic dimension an interactional key switching: the vocalizations show a change of state (turned out or feigned) in the speaker’s mind (Heritage) but they also indicate a participatory footing (Goffman). This metadiscoursive marking reveals the reason of the preferred initial or post-rhematic places of primary interjections in the turn of the current speaker and their significant recurrence in back-channel. The contribution of the Praxematics adds to this conversationalist one the consideration of the processes of actualization of the interjectional metapraxemes (metadiscursive particles), that is as organizers of the internal joints of the speech and as interfaces with the reality. These particles indeed tend to mark for others the integration of information stemming from the arisen of phenomena in the interactional environment or in the speaker’s mind.
Our hypothesis is that they index a disconnection in the linguistic flow and in the current activity while stitching of to say, before an enunciative restart. This metadiscursive dynamism is based on the set of the mutual expectations such as, according to the participation norms, the management of the unexpected, precisely, can arouse it. So, the surprise cue that, traditionally, we reveal under oh and ah, is to be reviewed as appearance of a distributed interactive affect, which pertains to the formation of the image of other in talk and in the course of action (allogenesis). This intersubjective scope explains, in the same analytical movement, the specific relationship between vocalizations and contextualization or interpretative formatting.
With the help of these theoretical assumptions, a transverse approach of the data (more particularly according to the placement in the first one, the second and third turn-at-talk) allows to draw the differential features of the vocalizations with regard to the other interjectional particles to specify better their own defining features. In the same sense, to contribute to solve the classic problems in semantics of the vocalic interjections, we put the monosemic hypothesis of the respective basic values of ah and of oh which specify them towards the other interjectional morphemes and separate between each other (more particularly through their forward-looking / retrospective scope). Their association to other particles (like: ah bon, oh là là), syntagms (ah! La carte bleue!) and clauses (oh ! j’ai pas dit ça hé) bends in speech this basic schema, that the voco-prosodical marks – to whom an examination is dedicated – also contribute to actualize. These observations contribute to anchor this work in the joint claimed between the discourse analysis and the interaction in grammar.

• Doctorat en sciences du langage mené sous la direction de J. Bres (Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier) et soutenu le 6 décembre 2014 (mention très honorable avec félicitations)
JURY
Rapporteurs
• M. Antoine AUCHLIN, Maître d'enseignement et de recherche, Université de Genève
• Mme Anne-Catherine SIMON, Professeure, Université de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique
Autres membres du jury
• Mme Jeanne-Marie BARBÉRIS, Professeure des universités honoraire, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, expert invitée
• Mme Christine BÉAL-HILL, Professeure des Universités, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier – Présidente du jury
• M. Jacques BRES, Professeur des Universités, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier – Directeur de thèse

Background noise evokes a similar suite of adaptations in the acoustic structure of communication calls across a diverse range of vertebrates. Echolocating bats may have evolved specialized vocal strategies for echolocating in noise, but also seem to exhibit generic vertebrate responses such as the ubiquitous Lombard response. We wondered how bats balance generic and echolocation-specific vocal responses to noise. To address this question, we first characterized the vocal responses of flying free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) to broadband noises varying in amplitude. Secondly, we measured the bats’ responses to band-limited noises that varied in the extent of overlap with their echolocation pulse bandwidth. We hypothesized that the bats’ generic responses to noise would be graded proportionally with noise amplitude, total bandwidth and frequency content, and consequently that more selective responses to band-limited noise such as the jamming avoidance response could be explained by a linear decomposition of the response to broadband noise. Instead, the results showed that both the nature and the magnitude of the vocal responses varied with the acoustic structure of the outgoing pulse as well as non-linearly with noise parameters. We conclude that free-tailed bats utilize separate generic and specialized vocal responses to noise in a context-dependent fashion.

Objectives: The prelinguistic skills which pave the way for language development have always been an area of research in the Speech Therapy field. Although studying these skills is important, there is a study gap among Persian children. Therefore, this study explored prelinguistic skills among a sample of Persian-speaking children aged 6 to 24 months and made a comparison between different age groups. We also studied the effects of gender and family history of speech-language disorders on children’s prelinguistic abilities.
Methods: In the present study, 277 mothers of Iranian Persian-speaking children aged 6 to 24 months were asked to fill a research-made checklist that evaluated the prelinguistic skills of their children. This study was cross-sectional and was conducted in Tehran City, Iran, in 2021. Children’s abilities in different age groups were compared using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the post-hoc test. The differences between the total scores of the two genders were also determined using the Mann-Whitney U test.
Results: Comparing the prelinguistic skills in different age groups indicated a statistically significant increase in the scores as children grow up. Children with a positive family history of speech-language disorders scored lower on the checklist than the others (91.03±17.37). Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between the two genders in developing gesture, vocalization, first words, social interaction, imitation, and play; girls had higher scores.
Conclusion: Based on the studies conducted in different countries, prelinguistic skills develop as children grow up; these skills facilitate language acquisition and other social skills. The present study also demonstrated the development of these skills alongside children’s development. This similarity between Persian-speaking children and other children from different cultures and languages, as well as better performance in children with a negative family history of speech-language impairments, confirm the role of genetic factors in children’s development. Moreover, the differences in the development of some prelinguistic skills between girls and boys reveal the impact of various factors, such as social factors, on prelinguistic skills development.

In the field of computer music, melodic based forms of vocalizations have often been used as channels to access subject’s queries and retrieve information from music databases. In this study, we look at percussive forms of vocalizations in order to retrieve rhythmic models entrained by subjects in Samba culture. By analyzing recordings of vocal percussions collected from randomly selected Brazilian subjects, we aim at comparing emergent rhythmic structures with the current knowledge about Samba music forms. The database of recordings was processed using a psychoacoustically inspired auditory model and further displayed on loudness and onset images. The analyses of emergent rhythmic patterns show intriguing similarities with the findings in previous studies in the field and put different perspectives on the use of vocal forms in music information retrieval and musicology.

Both daily and seasonal year-round vocalizations of the Long-eared owl (Asio otus) (Linnaeus, 1758) were recorded in the Middle Volga River region, Russia with the use of digital dictophones. Voice recorders were installed in the daytime for up to 5 days. The maximum duration of continuous operation of voice recorders was about 140 hours. By the time the previous recording was finished, we would arrive and move the recorder to a different location. The Long-eared owl can be classified as a moderately vocalizing bird, with calls recorded during 3 spring months. Peak activity is associated with pre-incubation and incubation periods. In the spring months, calls of the Long-eared owl were recorded from 16.37 h to 03.43 h. In the spring, the Long-eared owl began to cry before sunset (from 1 hour 30 minutes to 3 hours 15 minutes) and after sunset (from 56 minutes to 3 hours 39 minutes). Vocalization started after sunset for an average of 50 minutes. Vocalization always ended before dawn (to 1 h 21 min). Statistically significant differences in the duration of vespers and morning vocalizations were obtained with the use Mann-Whitney U test (Z =-3.08; p < 0.05).

Voice Studies brings together leading international scholars and practitioners, to re-examine what voice is, what voice does, and what we mean by "voice studies" in the process and experience of performance. This dynamic and interdisciplinary publication draws on a broad range of approaches, from composing and voice teaching through to psychoanalysis and philosophy, including:

-voice training from the Alexander Technique to practice-as-research;

-operatic and extended voices in early baroque and contemporary underwater singing;

-voices across cultures, from site-specific choral performance in Kentish mines and Australian sound art, to the laments of Kraho Indians, Korean pansori and Javanese wayang;

-voice, embodiment and gender in Robertson’s 1798 production of Phantasmagoria, Cathy Berberian radio show, and Romeo Castellucci’s theatre;

-perceiving voice as a composer, listener, or as eavesdropper;

-voice, technology and mobile apps.

With contributions spanning six continents, the volume considers the processes of teaching or writing for voice, the performance of voice in theatre, live art, music, and on recordings, and the experience of voice in acoustic perception and research. It concludes with a multifaceted series of short provocations that simply revisit the core question of the whole volume: what is voice studies?

Interaction with unfamiliar partners is a component of social life from infancy onward. Yet little is known about preverbal communication with strangers. This study compared the development of infant communication with strangers to communication with mothers and fathers and examined the contribution of temperament to partner-specific communication patterns. A sample of 58 infants was observed at four and eight months during separate home-based face-to-face interactions with three partners (mother, father, and stranger). Infant visual, facial, and vocal communication behaviors were coded microanalytically. Each parent reported on infant temperament at both ages. Multilevel regression analyses indicated that infants gazed longer at strangers than at fathers, exhibited less smiling to strangers than to mothers, and produced fewer vocalizations with strangers than with either parent. Both age and temperament moderated these differences. Vocal communication with fathers became more frequent at eight months; smiling to mothers was accentuated among infants with higher levels of temperamental surgency. Importantly, levels of communication behaviors with strangers were concurrently and longitudinally associated with those with mothers and fathers. Overall, findings suggest that infant

Chimpanzees produce numerous species-atypical signals when raised in captivity. Here we report contextual elements of the use of two captivity-specific vocal signals, the “raspberry” and the extended grunt. Results demonstrate that these vocalizations are not elicited by the presence of food; rather the data suggest that these vocalizations function as attention-getting signals. These findings demonstrate a heretofore underappreciated category of animal signals: novel signals invented in novel environmental circumstances. The invention and use of species-atypical signals, considered in relation to group differences in signaling repertoires in apes in their natural habitats, may index a generative capacity in these hominoid species without obvious corollary in other primate species.

Selective breeding and natural selection that select for one trait often bring along other correlated traits via coselection. Selective breeding for an infantile trait, high or low call rates of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalization of rat pups, also alters functions of some brain systems and emotional behaviors throughout life. We examined the effect of breeding for call rate on acoustic parameters that are of communicative significance. Selecting for higher call rate produced calls of significantly increased amplitude and bandwidth relative to a randomly bred line. Selecting for lower rate produced calls of decreased duration. These nonmorphological, functional trait changes demonstrate enhanced communicatory potential and energy expenditure for the High line and the opposite for the Low line. This demonstration of coselection in a communicatory system suggests an underlying heritable suite of linked acoustic vocalization characteristics that in noisy environments could enhanc...

The work defines the sigh as a type of breath expressing or communicating specific physical or mental internal states. To investigate the meanings of the sigh, the paper presents analyses of written and oral corpora, finding out that it may express different emotions like boredom or frustration, but also positive meanings like self-encouragement; then it focuses on the use of sighs in political debates. Finally a perception study shows participants’ agreement on the meanings of sighs in terms of valence and arousal. These results lay the bases for future studies to set a clearer distinction between sighs and other vocalisations as well as other effects on its meaning caused by the combination with other body signals like rolling eyes or shaking head.