According to linguistic research, language barriers shouldn't be a major roadblock because people tend to understand each other, regardless of Mother's tongue, via "iconic vocalization".
A study published in the journal Scientific Reports, entitled "Novel vocalizations are understood across cultures" shows, for the first time, that the human species is capable of recognizing intended meanings of "iconic vocalizations" or basic sounds made representing various objects, actions, entities--regardless of what language they speak.
These vocalizations have become universal languages that people often unconsciously use such as roaring to suggest a tiger, snoring to imitate sleep. And according to linguistic researchers, this could have played a key role in the development of the first human languages.
However, these findings contrast prior assumptions that signals and physical gestures drove the development of the first human languages.
What is Iconic Vocalization?
To understand vocalization's role in the development of languages, researchers conducted an online experiment with over 840 volunteers that spoke 25 various languages who were exposed to iconic vocalizations that represented 30 meanings critical to the early survival of humans. Participants of the study had to match each sound to one of six words presented, including its intended meaning.
The "intended meanings" for these vocalizations were then grouped into 6 main categories: animate entities, inanimate entities, actions, properties, qualifiers, and demonstratives.
Vocalizations were obtained via an online contest wherein people submitted basic sounds they believed to best represent the different words in order to win a prize. Those that submitted spoke English.
In the experiment, volunteers were able to identify the intended meaning of the vocalizations more than 64% of the time, on average. The most recognizable vocalizations were for "sleep" that people identified with a 98.6% accuracy. The least recognizable vocalization was for "that" which participants were only able to identify with a 34.5% accuracy, which was still well above the expected 16.74% chance.
The Missing Link of Human Languages
Today, researchers assume that the human language evolved through the use of gestures and other physical signals. Marcus Perlman, senior author and a linguistics professor from the University of Birmingham theorizes that early man gradually added spoken words to gestures that soon would be the main mode of conversations.
However, the research shows that our ability to interpret these iconic vocalizations suggests that humans, in the early days, may not have needed gestures to create words at all. Instead, iconic vocalizations may have played a vital role as the first building b.ocks of languages, where physical gestures were simply added to the individual words after.
On the other hand, researchers say that the development of the first human language may have taken thousands of years, and much like most of our history, it is difficult to definitively say which came first--vocalization or gestures.
Perlman suggests that future studies should include comparisons between gestures and vocalizations to see how they compete with each other. Understanding the origins of the human language is key to understanding the fundamentals of what it means to be human.
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