Summary: A recent study links the trilled R sound to hard or jagged textures, while the L sound aligns with straight or smooth lines and is almost universally associated with rough or sharp shapes. Researchers compared the trilled R to smooth lines in 28 languages, with 94 % matching the trilled R to jagged lines and 84 % matching L to smooth lines in participants who spoke other languages.
This trend surpasses the well-known bouba/kiki influence in regularity across nations, shedding light on good metaphor in language. The results point to the possibility that these associations may have had an impact on how spoken languages evolved, leading to the prevalence of overjoyed R sounds despite their difficulty in articulation.
Important Information:
- 94 % of participants matched the velar R with jagged outlines, showing a strong cross-cultural style.
- Yet in language without the trilled R, like Mandarin and Japanese, the effect was constant.
- The R/L connection with feel and form surpasses the bouba/kiki impact in universality.
Origin: University of Birmingham
According to the findings of a recent study, people all over the world associate an L noise with soft texture and a smooth shape, while a trilled R sound has a hard texture and a rough shape.
This connection, according to researchers, may be more widespread than the well-known bouba/kiki effect.
New research from the University of Birmingham ( UK), published today ( 20th , Nov) in the , Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,  , has found one of the strongest cases ever documented of” sound symbolism” – a direct link between speech sounds and meaning.
Our research indicates that statement sounds have a structure and a condition, according to Marcus Perlman, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Communication at the University of Birmingham.
” In a previous research, we found that across dialects, R noises are more prevalent in adjectives describing hard as opposed to soft surfaces. This could be due to a connection between the word’s noise and the consistency to which it refers, or something else entirely.
We wanted to know whether there was a visual connection between roughness and the velar R sound in this study.
The bouba/kiki impact, where crap words like “bouba” are matched to rounded shapes, is the most well-known example of good symbolism in uttered language, as opposed to words like “kiki” that are matched to geometric shapes.
” In a similar study, we recently demonstrated the bouba/kiki influence with speakers of different languages, but the R/L influence appears much stronger and more consistent across nations.
The development of spoken languages may have been influenced by these kinds of cross-modal correspondences, which affect the words we use to describe structure and shape.
From Albanian to Zulu
The academics conducted their study through online and industry research involving 1030 people who spoke a total of 28 different languages, including Zulu, Albanian, Danish, English, Greek, Italian, Farsi, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, Daakie and Palikúr. Participants were asked to picture running their fingers along either side of the two lines, which were one sharp and one right.
They were then played a recording of a speaker producing a trilled R ( a rolled” R” sound, like in Spanish ) and an L-sound and matched each sound to one of the lines.
Irrespective of which was presented second, the study found that the vast majority of participants had a strong preference for matching R with the sharp line and L with the right line.
The pattern was particularly strong when matching the trilled R with the straight line ( 84 % on independent trials ), but it was also very strong when matching L with the straight line ( 84 % ).
The match rate for speakers of languages like Albanian and Mandarin Chinese was 100 %, with the lowest match rate at 70 % for those who spoke other languages.
Regardless of whether the noise was used in the language, the trilled R relationship to roughness persisted in all speakers. For example, listeners of Palikúr, a language that is completely lacking in a overjoyed R, performed matching at 100 %.
This shows that even when listeners ca n’t produce sound, they still perceive it as rough and jagged, in addition to the evidence from language like Mandarin Chinese and Japanese, which frequently use the melody.
Near-universal connection between speech and feel
The outcomes represent the most convincing evidence of a well-known association between speech-related sound and physical characteristics.
The University of Birmingham professor of linguistics Bodo Winter said,” Overall, the results from our research are even more consistent than those from the cross-cultural analysis of the bouba/kiki effect.
” R is rougher than L, about 15 % more so than the bouba/kiki effect, according to nearly all study participants.” This structure was exceptionless across ethnicities: every one language class showed the same organization.
” This is different from bouba/kiki, which does n’t work in some languages. One of the most cross-culturally strong instances of good metaphor to date appears to be the relationship between R/L and roughness/smoothness.
The researchers also discovered that while there was an overall high average match rate for all languages, participants who used the alveolar trill R tended to have slightly lower percentage of correct matches (86.8 % ) compared to those whose native language did not make this sound as the primary variant (89.8 % ) did so.
This suggests that the sound’s regular use has lost its iconic strength.
Dr Perlman concluded:” The overjoyed R is among the most interesting of discourse sound. Producing sounds like this is notoriously challenging for speakers, and some languages even have a word for those who can never learn to do so ( Erre moscia in Italian ). Despite this, trilled Rs are amazingly prevalent in all cultures.
” It’s a mystery why such a hard tone would be so prevalent. We believe that R is associated with some of its fame.
The noise has an incredible expressive benefit that encourages people to use it even when it’s difficult to articulate because it can express such a strong feeling of texture and shape. Furthermore, it’s a really exciting sound and a lot of enjoyment to , produce!”
About this news item about analysis in auditory processing and language
Author: Eleanor Hail
Source: University of Birmingham
Contact: Eleanor Hail – University of Birmingham
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Start exposure.
Marcus Perlman and others remarked that” the alveolar melody is perceived by speakers of different languages as jagged/rough.” The Acoustical Society of America Journal
Abstract
The epithelial flutter is perceived as jagged/rough by lecturers of different cultures
Typological research shows that across languages, trilled]r ] sounds are more common in adjectives describing rough as opposed to smooth surfaces.
An experiment involving 28 different dialects from 12 different families serves as the foundation for this linguistic research in this review.
As a result, individuals imagined running their fingers along both right and jagged lines. They were then played an alveolar trill]r ] and an alveolar approximant]l ] and matched each sound to one of the lines.
Participants showed a strong tendency to match]r ] with the jagged line and]l ] with the straight line, even more consistently than in a comparable cross-cultural investigation of the , bouba/kiki , effect.
The pattern is strongest for matching]r ] to the jagged line, but also very strong for matching]l ] to the straight line.
Although trilled[r ] was the primary variant, this effect was weaker when speakers of languages with various phonetic understandings of the rhotic sound were able to discern it. This suggests that a sound’s classic possible may be limited as a result of its phonological use to create structural meaning contrasts.
These results extend our understanding of classic crossmodal letters, highlighting deep-rooted links between audio understanding and touch/vision.
