TELLING SECRETS
Sierra Locklear shares a secret with her friend, Emily Tupponce at an autumn pow wow.
Photo by Catharine Mason
VOVA Mission
VOVA's primary mission is to preserve endangered indigenous languages and other vocal and verbal art traditions through digital documentation of community performances. The materials collected may be used for research and for developing teaching tools for communities seeking to revitalize their native languages. They may also serve as resources in language classes at all levels. More broadly, VOVA seeks to strengthen appreciation of cultural expressions and values of communities so often ignored in today’s world.
PLAYFUL CHATTER
Children engage in playful chatter in the Central Himalayan region.
Photo by John Leavitt
What is a Speech Genre?
As we humans speak together, we construct meticulous codes and rules for language use. From the pronunciation of tiny vocal sound bytes called phonemes to the delivery of larger groups of sentences that build into a full discourse, we organize our speech into recognizable verbal genres (jokes, personal anecdotes, historical narratives, etc.). Such speech genres are practiced and appreciated by groups of individuals who share the same dialect and culture.
Some genres are identifiable by group members at the very start of a discourse. The formula, “Once upon a time”, for example, signals that a folktale will unfold. Tone of voice may also indicate to listeners what is coming: a reprimand, good news, bad news, and a joyful announcement may be anticipated from the vocal tone of the speaker.
Speech genres are dependent upon social context providing rules about how we practice them. For example, in most cultures, we anticipate a lesson in a classroom while we are shocked by a joke at a funeral. Speech genres have deep set cultural and social functions and values that reach back to ancestral lineages. They have served to give form to knowledge, histories, artistic tastes, cultural values, and ideologies for a very long time.
FAMILY HISTORY
Federico Calapucha combines natural history and family history to tell a group of students about the connection of a forest tree to his ancestors.
Photo by Michael Uzendoski
ANECDOTES
Shonda, Mae, Ernestine, Taylor, and Henry engage in lunch break anecdotes.
Photo by Catharine Mason
What is a Speech Style?
Verbal communication codes itself into speech styles that are evaluated and modified everyday by community members. Our choice of words is inspired by the way their sounds and meanings make us feel about ourselves, and by the response that they get from those around us.
These choices create personal and social styles that lend color and music to our discussions. Poetic patterning is also an integral part of social life. It reveals personalities, makes suffering bearable, strengthens relationships, clarifies the unspeakable, and seals contracts.
Speech styles give rise to cultural ways of speaking that characterize both oral and written literatures. Poetry is a worldwide phenomena in which speakers and writers construct verbal patterns that will draw attention to the form and act of speaking itself.
Lastly, poetic speech emerges from a deep set pleasure of making verbal patterns. Like all symbolic codes, language is a social convention, and part of that convention is that we enjoy the exchange.
INTIMATE CONVERSATION
Women engage in intimate conversation near the Eno River.
Photo by Lesley J. Carr
PICNIC CONVERSATION
Neighborhood girlfriends laugh and enjoy picnic conversation near the river.
Photo by Robert Blackburn
Explore the Complete Archive
Dive deeper into the rich tapestry of human expression through our complete digital collections and support our ongoing mission.
VOVA Song Studies
Learn about the VOVA Song Studies method of transcribing song performances. Explore our comprehensive frameworks for song entextualization and coding.
Genres Documented
VOVA researchers meticulously archive a vast array of human vocal and verbal expressions across diverse cultures and traditions.
Endangered language documentation projects
Exploring the network of dedicated archives and research initiatives preserving the world’s endangered linguistic heritage.