View source for Vocable

{{Short description|Meaningful sound uttered by people}}
{{distinguish|Vocable (lexicography)}}
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In the broadest sense of the word, a '''vocable''' (from {{langx|la|vocabulum}}) is any identifiable utterance or writing, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture.<ref>{{OED|vocable}}</ref><ref>''The Cambridge Companion to Saussure''</ref> The use of the term for words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instead used for utterances which are not considered [[word]]s, such as the English [[interjection]]s of assent and denial, ''uh-huh'' {{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|h|ʌ}} and ''uh-uh'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʌ|ʔ|ə}}, or the interjection of error, ''uh-oh'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʌ|ʔ|oʊ}}.<ref>Danesi (2004) ''A Basic Course in Anthropological Linguistics''</ref>

Such non-lexical vocables are often [[Non-lexical vocables in music|used in music]], for example ''la la la'' or ''dum dee dum'', or in magical incantations, such as ''abra-cadabra''. [[Scat singing]] is essentially all vocables.<ref>William R. Bauer, "Scat Singing: A Timbral and Phonemic Analysis", ''Current Musicology'', 2002, no.71-73, {{doi|10.7916/cm.v0i71-73.4828}}</ref> Many [[Native American music|Native American songs]] consist entirely of vocables; this may be due to both phonetic substitution to increase the [[Sonorant|resonance]] of the song, and to the trade of songs between nations speaking different languages.<ref>Golla (2011) ''California Indian Languages'', §4.12.4</ref> [[Jewish]] [[Nigun]]im also feature wordless melodies composed entirely of vocables such as ''Yai nai nai'' or ''Yai dai dai''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Matansky |first1=Eugene |title=Nigun Shamil: The Soul Endlessly Yearning for What It Has Always Never Been |url=https://www.academia.edu/10011516 |publisher=Herzog Academic College |access-date=28 June 2021}}</ref>

Vocables are common as [[pause filler]]s, such as ''um'' and ''er'' in English, where they have little formal meaning and are rarely purposeful.

[[Pseudoword]]s that mimic the structure of real words are used in experiments in [[psycholinguistics]] and [[cognitive psychology]], for example the [[nonsense syllable]]s introduced by [[Hermann Ebbinghaus]].

The [[Babbling|proto-word]]s of infants, which are meaningful but do not correspond to words of adult speech, are also sometimes called vocables.<ref>Crystal (2008) ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''</ref>

==See also==
* [[Beatboxing]]
* [[Onomatopoeia]]
* [[Speech disfluency]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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[[Category:Oral communication]]
[[Category:Singing]]