Why can deaf people scream and laugh but can't talk?

[Anonymous]

Why can deaf people scream when their scared or amused and laugh cough andale sound when they sneeze but can't talk at all?

[Bluemax]

Screaming and laughing are instinctual. Babies can do them long before they learn to talk. You did it before you learned to talk.

Deaf people can talk, by the way. I've met some. It sounds unnatural because they can't hear their own voices.

The development of speech seems to show that we're hardwired for it, but it must be reinforced. When we're babies, around about 8 months we start to babble. At first we babble all the sounds in every language, but over time, the sounds that aren't in a language will drop out of a baby's babbling. For example, a Japanese baby might well say "La! La! La! La!" even though the "L" sound doesn't exist in Japanese. A few months later, as the baby starts to say its first words, the "l" sound would disappear from its babbling. It's true of all babies born into whatever culture or language. They babble all sounds at first, but then the sounds that don't exist in its parent culture disappear a few months later. It is PRECISELY at this time that deaf babies stop babbling altogether. Most neuroscientists and linguists believe this is because spoken language isn't reinforced for them. So the stop speaking.

Later on, many deaf people DO learn to speak (some speak several spoken languages), but it is hard because they can't hear themselves. "B's" and "P's" are particularly difficult for them to distinguish. Look at yourself in a mirror when you make a "b" and a "p" sound. It looks the same. It feels the same if you hold your fingers up to your lips.

By the way, a lot of deaf people are VERY noisy when it comes to sex. I've researched this... ;-D

[Anonymous]

Because you don't need your ears to laugh, but you need them to really understand what sounds you're making with your voice. A laugh isn't supposed to be a specific sound, while words are.

Huge difference between a laugh outburst and shaping words with your vocal cords.

[crystalt70]

Because they are deaf (can't hear), but they aren't mute (can't speak). The only reason they don't speak like us is because they couldn't hear in order to learn. That's if they were born deaf of course. My cousin on my dad's side is deaf. Every Christmas Eve, he signs to a song in such a beautiful way.

[evellion]

They can, technically speaking. It's a lot more work to try speaking words when you don't actually know what they sound like though, which is why many people who are deaf and do speak have different tones and speech patterns.

[PinkAcid]

Words are more complicated to pronounce than basic innate sounds, of you can't hear yourself or others pronounce them first you're going to have to guess and sound it as best as you can

[taaylormaarie]

They have never heard a someone speak they do not know how. Screaming and laughing are apart of natural instincts humans have. They are not mute just cannot hear.

[Distant]

It depends on when they went deaf. Many deaf people actually can talk. The problem with people who have been deaf from birth is that they have not heard words to learn how to articulate them. There's nothing wrong with their vocal cords...

[Mesmerizer]

The problem is hearing not talking their voices and vocal cords are perfect. Just the ears that have a problem

[kylah]

Being able to scream and laugh is something that you are born with, while speaking is something that you learn how to do.

[Yeahhh234]

Depends, but in those cases it is because screaming and laughing is innate and basic, language takes precision and usually hearing your own voice

[Anonymous]

speaking language takes some precision & when you can't hear what you're saying it's difficult to perfect the different sounds that make up words.

[mrcluelessguy]

Its because they can't hear. As a child, we started to talk by mimicing the words we hear.