Comment by gste

6 hours ago

I think objects with these shapes make similar sounds in the real world. Sharp shapes make percussive sounds. Round shapes make softer sounds.

Dog's have very good hearing, and their hearing must help them to model the world around them, to understand what different objects in the world are.

So I think it's less about linguistics and more about our audiovisual mapping of the physical world.

Then again, that must be where the origin of language evolved from in the first place.

13 comments

gste

Reply
Wolfenstein98k  5 hours ago

Do they though? Or is that biased by having seen wavelengths?

  • jolmg  3 hours ago

    > Or is that biased by having seen wavelengths?

    You don't need to. They probably mean how rounded objects tend roll or slide, and spiky objects tend to scrape at most or dig into a crevice and so abruptly stop with a shorter sound.

  • SamBam  5 hours ago

    Young kids follow our same expectations with kiki and bouba. They haven't seen wave traces.

    • fwip  4 hours ago

      No, but the person proposing "it might be due to the sounds that objects of those shapes make" has.

potsandpans  4 hours ago

> So I think it's less about linguistics and more about our audiovisual mapping of the physical world.

There's probably an overlap that makes the distinction fuzzy.

  • p-e-w  3 hours ago

    There’s an overlap, but the observation from the parent comment turns this widely cited phenomenon from a supposed mystery or deep insight into something trivial.

    It’s like observing that humans across cultures agree that the word “woof” refers to a dog and the word “miaw” refers to a cat… no shit.

    • Timon3  1 hour ago

      I hope you understand that just because a proposed explanations makes intuitive sense, it doesn't automatically have to be right.

      Edit - it seems there's evidence that this intuitive explanation is wrong, see the article linked here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50146562

      This is why I like to remind myself that the world is much more interesting than I often think, which is why the drive to jump to simple and boring explanations can often be a trap.