Listen closely to those baboon calls. They may tell you a thing or two about human speech. Scientists who studied baboons’ wahoos, yaks, barks and other vocalizations have found evidence of five vowel ...

The latest discovery is that elements of their vocals function in a way that’s fascinatingly similar to human vowels, making their communication more elaborate and nuanced than previously realized.

English bursts with consonants. We have words that string one after another, like angst, diphthong and catchphrase. But other languages keep more vowels and open sounds. And that variability might be ...