| Description |
312 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction: Personally speaking -- Baby talk -- Origins -- Emotion -- Language -- Sex and gender -- The voice in society -- The voice of leadership & persuasion -- Swan song. |
| Summary |
"Beginning with the novel-and compelling-argument that our ability to speak is what made us the planet’s dominant species, [John Colapinto] guides us from the voice’s beginnings in lungfish millions of years ago to its culmination in the talent of Pavoratti, Martin Luther King Jr., and Beyoncé-and each of us, every day. Along the way, he shows us why the voice is the most efficient, effective means of communication ever devised: it works in all directions, in all weathers, even in the dark, and it can be calibrated to reach one other person or thousands. He reveals why speech is the single most complex and intricate activity humans can perform. He travels up the Amazon to meet the Piraha, a reclusive tribe whose singular language, more musical than any other, can help us hear how melodic principles underpin every word we utter. He heads up to Harvard to see how professional voices are helped and healed, and he ventures out on the campaign trail to see how demagogues wield their voices as weapons." -- Amazon.com. |
| Subject(S) |
Voice -- Social aspects.
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Oral communication -- Social aspects.
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Speech and social status.
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Sound.
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Physics.
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Psychology.
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Human anatomy.
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Science.
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NonFiction. |
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Psychology. |
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Science. |
| ISBN |
9781982128746 (hardcover) |
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1982128747 (hardcover) |
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