this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2025
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What about in different languages? Is it the same?
Also, what about different alphabets? Is it a thing where all characters (letters, numbers) have color? Or is it like, idk, the mental processing of "this character means the letter C. The letter C, brain tells me, I recognize as part of language. Language begets words, which begets colors"?
This is super fascinating to me. Like, if you knew the phonetic sound a Japanese hiragana character makes, would you start to see that character in the colors that correspond with roman spelling?
Like の is prounced and spelled in the Roman alphabet as "no".
Does の now have the same colors as "no"?
That is actually a very interesting question and I think it entirely depends on what senses triggers the synesthesia. For me, it is the look of the letters that determines what color they get. I still have to know what sound they make and understand what they mean and such before the colors start to come. Otherwise it is just a nonsensical pattern and my mind ignores it.
If I learned Japanese, I'm sure their writing system would have different colors to me. I can answer you on the の because it is one of the only Japanese characters I understand and know and to me it is yellow, almost a light ochre with a bit of white in it while "no" is green and white.
It would be differnet for someone who sees words in colors if their synesthesia is based on sound. To them, maybe the の would have the same color as the "no" or maybe it would be different because the English "no" is pronounced differently than the Japanese "no". But I can't give a definitive answer on that one.
!!!! Interesting. So, I guess, it's the visual processing of characters into language?
Does の have the same(-ish) color as any other letters or numbers for you?
Sorry for the continuing questions. I don't have synesthesia, but I find it incredibly fascinating, just due to how different parts of the brain are activated when interpreting sensory input.
Correct! But that is just how it is to me. Other synesthetes may process letters differently because they use sound or smell or texture or taste etc. It's a very individual thing.
I think that the ochre/yellowish color appears to me when I look at の because it reminds me of E or rather "e" and to me E/e is a pale yellow. I'm definitely informed by my established understanding of letters in the Roman alphabet, but the color isn't a one to one copy paste because の and e are still different enough that the colors will be different too.
I started teaching myself the Cyrillic alphabet a few years ago, but got busy with life so I have since forgotten most of it again, but I do remember some of the letters taking on interesting colors for me. Most of the letters in the Cyrillic alphabet LOOK like Roman letters even if they have completely different sounds so many of them just get the color from the Roman alphabet, but some of them are just different enough that the color is unique to them. Correct! But that is just how it is to me. Other synesthetes may process letters differently because they use sound or smell or texture or taste etc. It's a very individual thing.
I think that the ochre/yellowish color appears to me when I look at の because it reminds me of E or rather "e" and to me E/e is a pale yellow. I'm definitely informed by my established understanding of letters in the Roman alphabet, but the color isn't a one to one copy paste because の and e are still different enough that the colors will be different too.
I started teaching myself the Cyrillic alphabet a few years ago, but got busy with life so I have since forgotten most of it again, but I do remember some of the letters taking on interesting colors for me. Most of the letters in the Cyrillic alphabet LOOK like Roman letters even if they have completely different sounds so many of them just get the color from the Roman alphabet, but some of them don't really look like Roman letters and while I was learning, they started to take on their own unique color. Since I still don't have a solid grasp on the Cyrillic alphabet, the colors are also very flimsy and hard to pin down. In the same way that it is hard for me currently to remember what sound goes with what letter.
But л which has the L sound, generally tends to flicker yellow and reddish pink to me atm. Maybe if I got really good at Cyrillic, it would become more yellow or more reddish pink or maybe, as my understanding of the letters grow, it will take a completely different color? I don't know. I haven't learned a - to me - foreign alphabet with language well enough to be able to tell you what happens there. I also don't remember how colors of the Roman letters were formed for me because when I learned to read and write I was a kid and I didn't know that how my brain works was a bit different in some areas so I guess the colors just came gradually and naturally and I didn't think about it until probably my early 20s when I had a history teacher who randomly brought the topic up in class and asked us if we saw colors when we look at letters and words. Me: oh yeah, but don't everybody?
Also, don't apologize for asking questions :D
... That's. So. COOL! AHH- :D
so, if you were to start learning a new alphabet and accompanying language, those letters might begin to take on colors of their own, like with Cyrillic and Russian. Ahhh- that's so strange and awesome! Er, well, to someone who doesn't have synesthesia (me).
Thanks for answering my questions and being so detailed in your responses! Last question - does punctuation have any effect on the colors you see? I imagine punctuation symbols don't do anything on their own, since they'd be just that - symbols. But if they're used in the context of language/communication, are they affected by your synesthesia as well?
Yeah! That I very possible! Again, I can only guess and refer to tendencies I have noticed in myself when practicing Cyrillic, but since I haven't seriously committed to learning Russian or any other language with non-roman letters, I can only guess what it would be like. I only started practicing it because I was developing fictitious languages at the time and wanted to broaden my horizon. Only reason I stopped was because life got hectic af and I haven't had the time and energy for a year and a half to have hobbies or interests or really anything other than working. I'm slowly moving into hobby and interest territory again now that life is a tiny bit less insane, so maybe I will pick Cyrillic back up. I remember taking a sneak peak on Mongolian script as well and that shit looks like vertical elvish, wtf. So pretty.
Hmm... that's actually a good question! I have never thought about punctuation but come to think of it I do see some of them in color too. I just tend to ignore them since they are just punctuation. For example ? is white and black while " is brown. It isn't all symbols that have colors, though. # doesn't have a color. Periods are black and dashes are creamy yellow. I don't know if they make a difference when it comes to how I perceive color in a sentence. I thin question mark is the only one I have really noticed because the white is dominant. With the others I just haven't thought about whether or not they affect my perceptions. I think they do. Kinda like how you know what Mickey mouse looks like but if you were to draw him from memory you would be a but like "uuuuuh...." because you haven't ever really studied his design, you just recognize it and know it's him when you see him.
That's kinda how synesthesia is for me too. I know that B is blue and dashes are creamy yellow etc, but I don't think about how it looks in sentences until I have to actually study it.
I did try to test it last night with a short sentence and how different types of punctuation affected it. I learned that commas and periods and so on don't really make a difference while questionmark and three periods does have an effect on the color I see.
As for the rest I can't say how or if they affect it. The color stuff is very intuitive and organic and I try to stick to the ones I'm certain of while the unclear ones just get labeled as colorless. Even if I see a color with the colorless ones, it's too unstable for me to be certain with some. For example, the letter F is super tricky. It has like three different colors and kinda flickers for me. Depending on the words F appears in, it will take one of the three colors, but by itself it flickers black, dusty blue and a beige brown. J also flickers between black and blue. So those two letters are colorless to me, even though they technically aren't.
Sorry if it got a bit weird and random in the end. I'm a bit tired and my thoughts are all over the place haha.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend, friend!