People around world associate rolled R with a jagged line, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/20/people-around-world-associate-rolled-r-jagged-line-linguistics-bouba-kikiOpen linkView original on lemmy.mlSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.mlhttps://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/nov/20/people-around-world-associate-rolled-r-jagged-line-linguistics-bouba-kikiOpen linkView original on lemmy.ml
7 replies
I always wondered if the Bouba/Kiki effect was reflected in the shape of the associated letters, or if it was just a coincidence.
I can’t think of any writing systems that associate an “r” sound with a jagged-line character, though.
The bouba-kiki-effect has been observed in languages without writing systems
Yeah, I was assuming any influence would go the other way (i.e., people make letters that remind them of the sounds).
I’m guessing it’s to do with the perturbed waveform. Someone should do a followup study to see whether any other sounds with similar characteristics(i.e. an idling car engine, a TR-808 drum machine handclap) would have similar associations.
I'd never heard of this language - Palikúr is an indigenous South American language spoken in Brazil and French Guiana (only 1500 speakers).
i want to know what "jagged" means here. rolled Rs are too soft to form the "jagged" characteristic i imagine from a T sound. i see a rolled R as more of a rectified sine wave, half-rounded.
then again if the other line was completely flat...
yeah see, that's not the line i would draw for what it *feels* like.