A woman and a cartoon robot are each in a separate box surrounded by drawings of a snake, an ambulance, a cat, and a bell, with text indicating the sounds they each make. Whether you’re describing the sound of your faulty car engine or meowing like your neighbor’s cat, imitating sounds with your voice can be a helpful way to relay a concept when words don’t do the trick. Vocal imitation is the sonic equivalent of doodling a quick picture to communicate something you saw — except that instead of using a pencil to illustrate an image, you use your vocal tract to express a sound. This might seem difficult, but it’s something we all do intuitively: To experience it for yourself, try using your voice to mirror the […]
Original web page at news.mit.edu
