Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages
Abstract Cross-modal integration between sound and texture is important to perception and action. Here we show this has repercussions for the structure of spoken languages. We present a new statistical universal linking speech with the evolutionarily ancient sense of touch. Words that express roughn...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04311-7 |
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| _version_ | 1850146227009617920 |
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| author | Bodo Winter Márton Sóskuthy Marcus Perlman Mark Dingemanse |
| author_facet | Bodo Winter Márton Sóskuthy Marcus Perlman Mark Dingemanse |
| author_sort | Bodo Winter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Cross-modal integration between sound and texture is important to perception and action. Here we show this has repercussions for the structure of spoken languages. We present a new statistical universal linking speech with the evolutionarily ancient sense of touch. Words that express roughness—the primary perceptual dimension of texture—are highly likely to feature a trilled /r/, the most commonly occurring rhotic consonant. In four studies, we show the pattern to be extremely robust, being the first widespread pattern of iconicity documented not just across a large, diverse sample of the world’s spoken languages, but also across numerous sensory words within languages. Our deep analysis of Indo-European languages and Proto-Indo-European roots indicates remarkable historical stability of the pattern, which appears to date back at least 6000 years. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a420918a57144052abdfd2fbd52dc0a6 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-a420918a57144052abdfd2fbd52dc0a62025-08-20T02:27:54ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-01-0112111110.1038/s41598-021-04311-7Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languagesBodo Winter0Márton Sóskuthy1Marcus Perlman2Mark Dingemanse3Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of BirminghamDepartment of Linguistics, University of British ColumbiaDepartment of English Language and Linguistics, University of BirminghamCentre for Language Studies, Radboud UniversityAbstract Cross-modal integration between sound and texture is important to perception and action. Here we show this has repercussions for the structure of spoken languages. We present a new statistical universal linking speech with the evolutionarily ancient sense of touch. Words that express roughness—the primary perceptual dimension of texture—are highly likely to feature a trilled /r/, the most commonly occurring rhotic consonant. In four studies, we show the pattern to be extremely robust, being the first widespread pattern of iconicity documented not just across a large, diverse sample of the world’s spoken languages, but also across numerous sensory words within languages. Our deep analysis of Indo-European languages and Proto-Indo-European roots indicates remarkable historical stability of the pattern, which appears to date back at least 6000 years.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04311-7 |
| spellingShingle | Bodo Winter Márton Sóskuthy Marcus Perlman Mark Dingemanse Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages Scientific Reports |
| title | Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| title_full | Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| title_fullStr | Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| title_short | Trilled /r/ is associated with roughness, linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| title_sort | trilled r is associated with roughness linking sound and touch across spoken languages |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04311-7 |
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