I mean, guitarists can play the same notes as the human voice, but why they can never (or at least I’ve never seen) reproduce the actual letters to sing a word that is understandable?
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Not an ELI5 but still: Equal notes does not mean equal sound. A guitar and a human can both produce the same “note” defined by fundamental frequency (for example, middle A is 440 hz, humans and guitars can both produce this). However, the harmonic frequencies – integer multiples of the fundamental (880 hz, 1320 hz, etc.) will differ in presence. Therefore the formant (an envelope around the frequency peaks) will be different. A singer can vary their formant by changing the shape of their mouth and vocal tract but a guitar cannot vary its formant by nearly as much. As others have said, there are ways that different instruments can replicate this – think of jazz trumpeters playing with a cup mute, adds a human like wah to the sound that they play.
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