Magic of Speech

Description

Where did the magic of speech begin?

I was given the responsibility of researching and gathering information for the field of sound and speech developments for a theatrical group in 1368 (1990). At the time, there were few sources in this regard; given that was the pre-Internet era, I was left with a book by Cicely Berry translated to Persian by Mohsen Yalfani[1], resorting to which I could make no outstanding achievement. After a while, I was admitted to Tehran University for my BA in Theatre, and the notes of my research remained intact. At that point, we were obliged to submit both practical and theoretical theses to be graduated. Meanwhile, it was during the second year that looking into my above-mentioned notes, it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to take sound and speech development as the subject of my thesis, and that was the starting point of my journey into serious research in the field.

As I was truly obsessed with it, this journey was continued through my MA thesis. Apart from that, two other incidents play a significant role in my journey which has taken around 25 years as of now; the first one backs to a Wednesday midnight in 1374 (1995) when I was writing my MA thesis under the supervision of my advisor, Dr Mahmoud Karimi Hakak about breathing. I regularly went to mountain hiking every Wednesday when one day I met a man with whom I discussed my then subject of study, to him it was very fascinating as his professor in Pune moved his toes while breathing. Hearing such an anecdote was a shock for me to the extent that he agreed to bring a number of his sources regarding to breathing the next week. Long story short, I went each and every Wednesday to meet this man, the meeting which is yet to be happened.

I was skeptical about his story up until a video from Michel Jackson was handed in to me and I was riveted for the second time, I saw the singer who was not panting or short of breath after a long period of jumping ups and downs. That was the moment of epiphany to me that I realized that there exist methods of breathing in this regard. Back then, we were not equipped with internet, reaching out international sources was not easy and Dr Hakak’s library had just a few English books related to the subject which was not enough for me, I was wholeheartedly thinking about this subject and it became a dilemma in my life until one day my niece asked me to blow a balloon for her. Deeply looking to the method of blowing the balloon, I found my answer in stretching and sending the effect of breathing to sole of the foot! Still, I am not aware of how that Indian professor breaths from his toes but I am so happy that I have never met that man again as it may mislead me by leading me toward a neverland of Yoga which is very complicated and is not as simple as my method of breathing.

The second incident, which is not much of a story nature, is my revision of Phonetic book by Dr Samareh[2], to which I will refer in the following parts.

[1] Berry, C. (1973). Voice and the Actor. (M. Yalfani, Trans.)

[2] Samareh, Y. (1985). Persian Phonology: Sounds and Phonetic Construction of Syllables.