Dramatic Theories of Voice in the Twentieth Century By Andrew Ki ...

these sounds are known as phonemes. Essentially, phonemes sound like vowels and consonants and have no intrinsic linguistic meaning in and of themselves.Phonemes become part of a language when they are used in combination and signify shared and mutually understood meanings between speakers and auditors. Although many species, including those of amphibians, birds, and mammals, create vocal sounds by impeding the breath and thereby communicate with each other, only human beings have the ability to produce what contemporary linguists recognize as audible symbols expressed via variable sequences of syllables that convey original and creative thoughts according to syntactical rules.

But the voice defined as an anatomical process only scratches the surface of the numerous ways in which the term voice has been employed. Most uses have little or nothing to do with anatomy or sound. Were you to look up voice in the dictionary, there is a good chance you would find the words speech, expression, or utterance included in the definition, or even language as a synonym, as indeed writers within the philosophies of language use the three terms voice, speech, and language interchangeably. As we explore how humans use their voices, we readily notice that employing language and making speeches are intimately bound with vocal practice. But the terms are not synonymous. The word voice descends from the Latin vox and vocare, which mean “to call,” and the modern English term not only refers to the sound produced by the larynx, but it also acts as a metaphor for any distinctive form of expression, as exemplified in the phrases “give voice to,” “they spoke with one voice,” and “the author's voice.” Books of theatre criticism with the word voice in the title usually use it metaphorically and in reference to the abstract notion of expressive, usually written, style.

The word language stems from the Latin lingua, which refers both to language and to the tongue organ. The relationship between language and the tongue demonstrates the etymological link between language and voice. In contemporary use, however, language refers to the verbal system of communication, that is, words and grammar held in common by a community. When the voice found mention in the twentieth-century philosophies of language, it was typically as a conduit for, and subordinate