Perceptual Links Between Sound and Shape May Unlock Origins of Spoken Words
upstart writes:
Perceptual links between sound and shape may unlock origins of spoken words:
Language scientists have discovered that this effect exists independently of the language that a person speaks or the writing system that they use, and it could be a clue to the origins of spoken words.
The research breakthrough came from exploring the 'bouba/kiki effect', where the majority of people, mostly Westerners in previous studies, intuitively match the shape on the left to the neologism 'bouba' and the form on the right to 'kiki'.
An international research team has conducted the largest cross-cultural test of the effect, surveying 917 speakers of 25 different languages representing nine language families and ten writing systems -- discovering that the effect occurs in societies around the world.
Publishing their findings in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, the team, led by experts from the University of Birmingham and the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS), Berlin, says that such iconic vocalisations may form a global basis for the creation of new words.
Co-author Dr Marcus Perlman, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, commented: "Our findings suggest that most people around the world exhibit the bouba/kiki effect, including people who speak various languages, and regardless of the writing system they use."
"Our ancestors could have used links between speech sounds and visual properties to create some of the first spoken words -- and today, many thousands of years later, the perceived roundness of the English word 'balloon' may not be just a coincidence, after all."
Journal Reference:
Aleksandra wiek, Susanne Fuchs, Christoph Draxler, et al. The bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0390)
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