# SYNT-D-18-01048_R2_reviewer (1) **Keywords:** speech perception, voice perception, auditory objects **Abstract:** When you hear a person speaking in a familiar language you perceive the speech sounds uttered and the voice that produces them. How are speech sounds and voice perception related in a typical auditory experience of hearing speech? And how to conceive of the objects of the experiences that present voice and speech as united? The paper addresses these questions. I propose a conception of auditory objects of speech perception as temporally structured mereologically complex individuals. I argue that the metaphysical underpinnings of the experienced unity of speech sounds and voices can be explained in terms of the mereological view on sounds and their sources (O’Callaghan 2017). I also propose a psychological explanation (the Voice Shaping Speech model) of how we form and individuate the auditory objects of experiences of listening to speech in a particular voice. Voice characteristics enable determining the identity of auditory objects of speech sound perception by making some features of the speech signal stable and predictable. Powered by Editorial Manager® and ProduXion Manager® from Aries Systems Corporation Manuscript Without Author Information Click here to view linked References Title: Bringing back the voice – on the auditory objects of speech perception **Authors:** [[Full Title:]]