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.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2024
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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 think that this is most likely the case:
In the audio for this spectrogram I've pronounced [rä arä lä älä]. Even with all background noise, it's obvious how smoother the [l] is in comparison with [r] - in one you're simply redirecting the airflow laterally, in another you're "turning" it on and off, by hitting the alveolar ridge with the tongue.
Palikúr
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...
Jagged in this case can be understood as zig-zagging between high/strong and low/weak. It does describe [r] well - check the spectrogram that I've shared in the other comment, note how it alternates dark bands (louder) and lighter bands (quieter), in a way that [l] or the nearby vowel wouldn't.
yeah see, that's not the line i would draw for what it *feels* like.