Intro
What's in a voice? How is it that we can listen to someone speaking a foreign language, and despite not understanding what is being said we find it aesthetically pleasing? The answer is simple. You are listening to vocal music.
But sure that is just singing, right? Not quite.
Not only is vocal music based on what you do not understand, but it also does not require a melody or harmonies. Your preferences to vocal music will be based on the way the voice sounds. The way that words resonate in the throat, the way that harmonies are produced, the shape of the nasal cavity.
In the same way that you listen to your favourite composer and enjoy the sounds of the instruments used, a voice has the potential to give you the same emotional response. There is no semantic information contained within an instrument, so how should the voice be any different?
Imagine your life where you are woken up by a virtual assistant that speaks in a voice that triggers these aesthetic responses. Your smart home devices converse with you using the vocal cues and acoustic nuances that best suit your mood that day. A journey in your car becomes a far more pleasurable experience, purely as a result of the voice that speaks.
This is the world that influences my research.
Research
My current research is based around determining the impact of syntactic intelligibility on the recognition of the emotional speech signal.
Loosely translated, this means I take the elements of a voice into their component parts so they can be independently tested to see which factors corelate with the demographics of any given individual.
What has already been shown in previous tests, is that reducing the part of the voice that is understood by the individual causes a far more emotional response. Furthermore, the level at which the semantics are reduced (the amount of the voice we understand) is directly proportional to the intensity of the emotion.
This therefore means that is a person finds a voice somewhat appealing when they comprehend what is being said, they are likely to find that persons voice far more appealing when they are listening to that person whilst not understanding what they are saying.
This is not simply a case of speaking a foreign language as many languages utilise different movements in the vocal tract and parts of the mouth to make sounds that we do not associate with our native speech. Therefore, the language which is being used for my tests is also under scrutiny to ensure that providing a language remains as "British" as possible, assuming that prevails to representing a more favourable vocal experience to that of a foreign language.
You can follow my research at the following sites;
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew_Coombes4
http://dmu.academia.edu/MattCoombes
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/research-students/view/1066272-coombes-matthew
Papers
PAPERS
Please note that current papers from PhD studies are in preparation, and will be listed here in due course.
Language as a Linguistic Art: The Expression of Emotion in the Spoken Word (2014)
Elvish as a Foreign Language: Tolkien's influence on Modern Day Linguistics (2014)
Elvish Linguistics - The Science of Sindarin (2013)
Escape from Noldor - The Widespread Influence of Elvish (2013)
Tolkien: From Beowulf to Bilbo and Beyond (2012)
BOOK CHAPTERS
The following are chapter previews from my book, The Elvish Writing Systems of JRR Tolkien. Copies are available direct through myself, or via Amazon. Please contact me for further information.
Chapter 1 Preview - An Introduction to Elvish
Chapter 2 Preview - The Science Behind the Sound
Chapter 3 Preview - Sarati and the Starlight Systems
CONVENTION POSTERS
PGR Conference 2020, University of Cardiff
PGR Conference 2019, University of Cardiff
MEDIA COVERAGE
BBC Radio Cornwall, Saturday 11 July, 2020
The Times, Higher Education Supplement, 30th June 2016
Get in Touch
Please feel free to get in touch using the form below. I am happy to hear from anyone interested in my research; academically or commercially. Give as many details as possible in the form below and I will be in touch at the soonest opportunity.