Psychology associated to consonnants

Maciamo

Veteran member
Admin
Messages
9,970
Reaction score
3,273
Points
113
Location
Lothier
Ethnic group
Italo-celto-germanic
LINGUISTICS : psychology associated to consonnants

I am not sure whether anybody has ever seriously wondered if there were specific emotions or personality traits connected to each consonnant sound. I thought about it during the night (yes, I was sleeping, but my brain was still working lol).

For example, I have associated the letter "v" with analysis ever since I was a child. To me "s" represents the sharpness of mind and critical sense, be it verbally or not. I have long thought that "r" must have a connection with politeness/courtesy and aggressivity.

The way "r's" are pronounced in each language usually match this language speakers' attitude toward others. Eg. people rolling the "r" like in Italian, Spanish, Dutch or Scottish tend to me more direct in the way they say things, without always caring about how it will be perceived. Not to say that they don't care about other people's feelings, but something related. Both English and Japanese people are famous for their politeness, and in these language the "r" are very soft or even inexistent with some English speakers. Note that it has not always been like this. English "r's" were more like in German or French during the middle ages and still are in some region (eg. Northumberland). French "r's" are the coarser, and French people are known for their "frankness" (bluntness) and saying what they think when they think it without caring much about the emotional consequences on others. German "r's" vary depending on the regions. Some are like in French, others are slightly rolled. But some Germans also tend to be too outspoken rather than hypocritical.

I have thought about all the consonnant and what they may mean. Please think carefully about each of them and tell mehow you personally feel about them, so as to see if there is something universal about it, or if it's just how I feel. Note that everything below has just come out of my mind this morning (i.e. I haven't considered them long enough to know whether I am settled for their meaning or not). I haven't been able to express the feeling for each sound.

- "b" represents sensuality and femininity (the opposite of "v")
- "k" represents practicality and pragmaticality.
- "m" represents the emotional relations to other, esp. love/hate
- "n" represents goofy humour, childishness and lack of serious (often used in children's language, in almost any languages)
- "p" represents easy-going confidence and action, but can also feel childish or ridiculous

Don't know about d, t, f, h, j, g and l yet.
 
Maciamo, are you serious? Your story about the feelings you associate with consonnants is funny, but this is has no scientific basis
What about languages that don't have the consonnants you talk about?
Does it mean that Japanese have no "analysis" (no v), Hawaiian no critical sense (no s), Spanish no sensuality (no b)?

The way "r's" are pronounced in each language usually match this language speakers' attitude toward others
What about languages that have several rhotics (r-like sounds) or liquids?

And what about the sound changes?
In Japanese historically we have p > F > h

Also you can't reduce all the human language's consonnants to the letters of the alphabet. What about the clicks that exist virtually only in some African languages, implosive consonnants and other strange things?

Well, your "analysis" reflects only your personnal feelings but it doesn't stand from a scientific point of view
 
ToMach said:
Maciamo, are you serious? Your story about the feelings you associate with consonnants is funny, but this is has no scientific basis

Yes, I know. I have never said it had been proven. All theories start with hypothesis (which does not mean all hypothesis become theories, which is why I want other opinions).

What about languages that don't have the consonnants you talk about?
Does it mean that Japanese have no "analysis" (no v), Hawaiian no critical sense (no s), Spanish no sensuality (no b)?

Actually Spanish has no "v" like Japanese. But yes, if you ask me, those traits are much weaker in those respective culture as in others (IMHO).

What about languages that have several rhotics (r-like sounds) or liquids?

For example ? Worth investigating. I believe that personality traits common to a group of people have created differences in pronuciation.

And what about the sound changes?
In Japanese historically we have p > F > h

Japanese doesn't have "f". Changing doesn't matter as I am not talking about the letters themselves but the sounds. So enough if the "gh" of "cough" id pronouced "f" it doesn't matter at all, as the phonetic spelling is the same.

Also you can't reduce all the human language's consonnants to the letters of the alphabet. What about the clicks that exist virtually only in some African languages, implosive consonnants and other strange things?

Of course I want to discuss them too, and see what characterize and diferentiate the people who use them from those who don't.

Well, your "analysis" reflects only your personnal feelings but it doesn't stand from a scientific point of view

How can you say that ? Have you taken the time to analyse carefully the traits of character of speakers of all languages and try to see what were the dominant features of people who had some sounds that didn't exist in other languages ?

Then the way each sound is really pronounced can also give us clues. The way "k" are sounded in French, English and Japanese are all different. The softer being Japanese (almost like a "h"), then French, then English.

Are you saying that you have been able to demonstrate for sure that there was not the slightest possibility that pronuciation in a language has a connection/influence on the speakers' personality/way of thinking ? I think it had been proven that language plays a major role in influencing the way we think and feel.
 
Maciamo said:
I believe that personality traits common to a group of people have created differences in pronuciation
Eg. people rolling the "r" like in Italian, Spanish, Dutch or Scottish tend to me more direct in the way they say things, without always caring about how it will be perceived. Not to say that they don't care about other people's feelings, but something related. Both English and Japanese people are famous for their politeness, and in these language the "r" are very soft or even inexistent with some English speakers. Note that it has not always been like this. English "r's" were more like in German or French during the middle ages and still are in some region (eg. Northumberland). French "r's" are the coarser, and French people are known for their "frankness" (bluntness) and saying what they think when they think it without caring much about the emotional consequences on others. German "r's" vary depending on the regions. Some are like in French, others are slightly rolled. But some Germans also tend to be too outspoken rather than hypocritical.
if you ask me, those traits are much weaker in those respective culture as in others
Isn't all of this just stereotypes?

Japanese doesn't have "f". Changing doesn't matter as I am not talking about the letters themselves but the sounds. So enough if the "gh" of "cough" id pronouced "f" it doesn't matter at all, as the phonetic spelling is the same.
I am not talking about letters but about sounds. Japanese does not have [f] but it has [Φ] (or [F]), also a labial fricative, which is romanized by "f" in the Hepburn system. But my point is that Modern Japanese has a sound [h] but it is quite new. Before there was no [h] at all but a lot of [Φ], and before that no [h] and no [Φ] but only [p]. In your theory this would reflect a change in the Japanese personality. But this kind of p > f/Φ change is very common in human languages.

How can you say that ? Have you taken the time to analyse carefully the traits of character of speakers of all languages and try to see what were the dominant features of people who had some sounds that didn't exist in other languages ?
Are you saying that you have been able to demonstrate for sure that there was not the slightest possibility that pronuciation in a language has a connection/influence on the speakers' personality/way of thinking ? I think it had been proven that language plays a major role in influencing the way we think and feel.
Don't reverse the roles. You are the one who is trying to prove something, and thus has to bring reliable evidence (which things like "personnal feelings" are not). I am just bringing objections. My main arguments will be:
-The number of sounds the human mouth can pronounce is limited (about 80 "basic" consonnants which can have variants), but not the number of human emotions or personnality traits.
-The sounds of a human language change overtime : some sounds merge into one, some split into several, other simply disappear, and some just become others. This is true for any human language, and I don't see how it could be related to personnality traits.
I am not trying to deny inerinfluence of language and mind, but I don't accept your theory of the meaning of sounds. This kind of theory has been rejected by linguistic scientists because it has no foundation.
 
ToMach said:
But my point is that Modern Japanese has a sound [h] but it is quite new. Before there was no [h] at all but a lot of [Φ], and before that no [h] and no [Φ] but only [p]. In your theory this would reflect a change in the Japanese personality. But this kind of p > f/Φ change is very common in human languages.

This is justly what is interesting. Could there have been an evolution in society and lifestyle that resulted in a change in mindsets and pronunciation of that language ?

I also wanted to post another thread about "why vowels have changed over the centuries in French and English". For example, words ending in -aria/-ario in Italian have become -aire in French. The pronuciation the "i" in "-ite/-ine/-ipe/-ile/-ire, etc" in English have turned from "i" to "ai" (btw, how do you add phonetic symbols ?).

Don't reverse the roles. You are the one who is trying to prove something, and thus has to bring reliable evidence (which things like "personnal feelings" are not).

But you confidently said that there was no connection between consonnants and culture (group character) or personality. I was not asserting that what I said was true, but you did, so you should prove your argument that no such connections exist, not me. How can we hope to make progress if you are set against discussing the hypothesis from the start ? All scientists, psychologists or linguists have to start from somewhere to discover new things. My description of the psychology related to each consonnant is just a quick impression, but that could lead to some important psychological or linguistic discoveries if we try to analyse it in a rational way and test it in a scientific way.

I am just bringing objections. My main arguments will be:
-The number of sounds the human mouth can pronounce is limited (about 80 "basic" consonnants which can have variants), but not the number of human emotions or personnality traits.

Alright, let's not say "emotion" by "character traits". What's more there could be several of these character traits mixed in one "sound". It could also be that the absence or, at the contrary, frequent usage of some sounds by a linguistic group has a connection with some particular character traits. If that is proven, it should work for any linguistic group in the world. For example, if saying that the absence of "v" causes or is caused by a lack of affinity with analytical thinking (just a wild guess, it could be thousands of other things, which is why I want to gather as many opinion as possible), then it should be so for most people speaking a language with no "v" sound (but not all, because humans are not robots or inert things).

It would also be very different whether it is the person's mindset that influence the language into changing, or the opposite. Because if the people change the language (which I think they do), then an individual could strong character traits (eg. analytical) that his/her linguistic group usually lack.

But don't misunderstand me. For me nothing is black or white, but millions of nuances in between. So when I say that a linguistic group lack some "character traits ", it has to be understood that this is relative to other linguistic groups. So from a scale of intensity from 0 to 10 for analytical character (not skills), it is very possible to have something like this :
- Japanese (no "v") => 5
- Spaniards (no "v") => 6
- French => 8
- English => 9
- Germans => 8

So, it is not like saying that Japanese or Spaniards have no sense of analysis, but that it is less developed than in other language groups.

It could also be a (lack of) predominance of some traits of character in one linguistic group. If we were to make personality tests to all Japanese, English, French and Spanish speakers, we could certainly see differences in the repartition of dominant character groups. Looking at which country has the highest percentage of "strongly analytical people", we could try to compare sounds present or absent in these language groups and try to find which sounds influence it.

So don't care too much about my analysis, because it is just an intuitive impression based on my personal experience and feelings. What I would like is :
1) to know what is the intuitive impression of other people
2) to gather information regarding the difference of %age for the main character traits ("frankness vs hypocrisy", "emotional vs rational", etc.) of speakers of various linguistic groups and analyse the results to try to find what sounds have a connection with what personality.
3) to know if such a research has already been made and know the results
 
Maciamo said:
This is justly what is interesting. Could there have been an evolution in society and lifestyle that resulted in a change in mindsets and pronunciation of that language ?
But such changes are very common, they occured in different languages, in differrent places and at different times, so how could be this linked to one same change?

I also wanted to post another thread about "why vowels have changed over the centuries in French and English". For example, words ending in -aria/-ario in Italian have become -aire in French. The pronuciation the "i" in "-ite/-ine/-ipe/-ile/-ire, etc" in English have turned from "i" to "ai" (btw, how do you add phonetic symbols ?).
I don't know about English vowels, but these kind of changes have sometimes simple linguistic explanations, which makes less credible the link with some kind of mind evolution. In the case of French, I think it is a change in accent (stress accent) that triggered the loss of final vowels, maybe caused by the influence of the Germanic-like Frankish language. Basically Frankish speakers learned to speak Latin, but spoke it with their Frankish accent (manner of pronunciation), and this became French.

But you confidently said that there was no connection between consonnants and culture (group character) or personality. I was not asserting that what I said was true, but you did, so you should prove your argument that no such connections exist, not me. How can we hope to make progress if you are set against discussing the hypothesis from the start ? All scientists, psychologists or linguists have to start from somewhere to discover new things. My description of the psychology related to each consonnant is just a quick impression, but that could lead to some important psychological or linguistic discoveries if we try to analyse it in a rational way and test it in a scientific way.
No, I didn't say there was no connection, I said there is no scientific basis to your claim, no evidence, and it is rather unlikely for several reasons, like the ones I exposed.
I don't deny a connection between the mind and the language, but I don't think there is something like that in the phonetics. Sounds are in limited number and are highly subject to change by mutual influence, and sometimes external causes. But there is something on the word level for example. The most famous example is that of colours : all languages don't have the same words for color nor the same division of the light specter, which means we don't all see the world in the same way.
 
ToMach said:
But such changes are very common, they occured in different languages, in differrent places and at different times, so how could be this linked to one same change?

But each society evolves differently. I also believe in the strong influence of the environment (eg. climate) on a people's mentality and language. For instance, Northern European countries (from the latitude of central France, Switzerland and Austria) have more vowels (while Spansih, Italian or Japanese have only the 5 basic vowels).

I don't know about English vowels, but these kind of changes have sometimes simple linguistic explanations, which makes less credible the link with some kind of mind evolution.

Here is more about the Great Vowel Shift in English. As it happened in the 15-16th century, I strongly suspect that this is bound to a change in mentalities. This period is the Renaissance, the time of the Reformation, of the end of chivalry or the discovery of the new world and a complete change in lifestyles. That the sonority of the language should change so dramatically at that time is hardly surprising actually.

In the case of French, I think it is a change in accent (stress accent) that triggered the loss of final vowels, maybe caused by the influence of the Germanic-like Frankish language. Basically Frankish speakers learned to speak Latin, but spoke it with their Frankish accent (manner of pronunciation), and this became French.

So how do you explain the previous vowel shift from Classical to Vulgar Latin ? Interestingly, it coincides with Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, but no ethnic invasion.
 
The Great Vowel Shift in English was only completed in the 16th century, it took much longer than 200 years.
 
Maciamo said:
But each society evolves differently.
This is my point : if societies evolve differently why do we find universal tendancies in the sound changes.
I also believe in the strong influence of the environment (eg. climate) on a people's mentality and language. For instance, Northern European countries (from the latitude of central France, Switzerland and Austria) have more vowels (while Spansih, Italian or Japanese have only the 5 basic vowels).
I think this is wrong : climate rarely evolves (or on very large timespans) but language sounds evolve quite easily in comparison. And Hokkaido Japanese has 5 vowels, Aynu 5, Manchu 6, Canadian Cree 7, Inuktitut 3, Icelandic 8, Swedish 17 (all "Northern" languages"), while Southern Ryukyuan has 3, Taiwanese 6, Indonesian 6, Thai 9, Khmer 18, African Ga 42 (!) (all "Southern" languages). Of course their vowels have changed in number and nature over the time.
Here is more about the Great Vowel Shift in English. As it happened in the 15-16th century, I strongly suspect that this is bound to a change in mentalities. This period is the Renaissance, the time of the Reformation, of the end of chivalry or the discovery of the new world and a complete change in lifestyles. That the sonority of the language should change so dramatically at that time is hardly surprising actually.
I prefer a language internal explanation :
"It is probable that the Great English Vowel Shift was at first motivated by overcrowding, brought about by open-syllable lenghtening". (Hans Henrick Hock 1991 Principles of Historical Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter). To make it simple, the syllable-final vowels of English lenghtened (a common thing in human language), and thus, added to original long vowels, the number of long vowels in English become too numerous, To restore the balance of the system, some of those vowels became diphtongs, triggering changes in chain into the rest of the vowel system.
So how do you explain the previous vowel shift from Classical to Vulgar Latin ? Interestingly, it coincides with Christianity becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, but no ethnic invasion.
I think some elements of answer are in the same article you refered to :
Thus, the ten vowel system of Classical Latin, which relied on phonemic vowel length was new-modelled into a system in which vowel length distinctions were suppressed and alterations of vowel quality became phonemic. Because of this change, the stress on accented syllables became much more pronounced in Vulgar Latin than in Classical Latin. This tended to cause unaccented syllables to become less distinct, while working further changes on the sounds of the accented syllables.
Here again it is a chain change caused at first by prosodic changes (length and/or accent)
 
ToMach said:
This is my point : if societies evolve differently why do we find universal tendancies in the sound changes.

You seem not to understand at all what I mean. The universal tendencies is in the sounds, which are limited for all humans on earth. Societies evolve with time and so does their respective language. What I mean is that an evolution in culture (mentality, minset or whatever) goes hand by hand with an evolution in sounds for that particular linguistico-cultural group. So if the sound "v" (or any other sound) existed in a society, but then disappeared (or vice-versa) it may be due to a cultural change, that is a change in the character and minset of that group of people.

I think this is wrong : climate rarely evolves (or on very large timespans) but language sounds evolve quite easily in comparison.

You still don't get it. People might move to colder regions even if the global climate does'nt change (eg. expansion of Latin language from the Latium through the Roman Empire) . Or even if they don't, people in Northern climates may have additional vowels because the colder climate make them think differently (which is a fact).

And Hokkaido Japanese has 5 vowels, Aynu 5, Manchu 6, Canadian Cree 7, Inuktitut 3, Icelandic 8, Swedish 17 (all "Northern" languages"), while Southern Ryukyuan has 3, Taiwanese 6, Indonesian 6, Thai 9, Khmer 18, African Ga 42 (!) (all "Southern" languages). Of course their vowels have changed in number and nature over the time.

42 vowels ? Is that possible ? Do you mean at present or considering the evolution in time ?

Do you know if some vowels are found only in some ethnic or geograhical groups ?

As for the vowel shift, you seem to concentrate on how it happened, while I want to know why it happened.
 
Maciamo said:
You seem not to understand at all what I mean. The universal tendencies is in the sounds, which are limited for all humans on earth. Societies evolve with time and so does their respective language. What I mean is that an evolution in culture (mentality, minset or whatever) goes hand by hand with an evolution in sounds for that particular linguistico-cultural group. So if the sound "v" (or any other sound) existed in a society, but then disappeared (or vice-versa) it may be due to a cultural change, that is a change in the character and minset of that group of people.
Well from my point of view, it is you who seems not to understand. Let's say we aren't both clear. In your hypothesis, cultural change X is due to sound change Y, right? But we see this Y sound change in many different languages in different times and different places, whose societies have very different histories. So how do you explain that not every language whose speakers underwent cultural change X did not underwent sound change Y, and that the sound change Y did occur in some, while their speakers did not underwent culutural change X?
You still don't get it. People might move to colder regions even if the global climate does'nt change (eg. expansion of Latin language from the Latium through the Roman Empire).
I'm not talking about migrations : people living under similar climates for some time have still different vowel systems.
Or even if they don't, people in Northern climates may have additional vowels because the colder climate make them think differently (which is a fact)
But there are Northern languages with very few vowels and Southern languages with very large vowel systems.
42 vowels ? Is that possible ? Do you mean at present or considering the evolution in time ?
Yes this is possible : vowels can be "coloured" with many features (nasalization, pharyngealization, devoicing, rhoticization), and these "variants" can be separate phonemes in some languages (as nasal vowels in French). Phonetic science uses 28 "cardinal" vowels to describe languages, with a lot of diacritics.
Do you know if some vowels are found only in some ethnic or geograhical groups ?
I don't think so. Some vowels are less frequent than others, but these are universal tendancies who have simple anatomic and linguistic explanations. But certain consonnants are found only in some languages : the clicks are only found in some African languages as far as I know
As for the vowel shift, you seem to concentrate on how it happened, while I want to know why it happened.
No, the reason of the vowel shift is, as in many cases of important sound change, a change in the prosody. This change in accent/length is what caused a chain reaction in the whole vowel system. But now, if you ask me why this prosodic change occured in first place, I have no answer.
 
I didn't read the entire discussion, so I don't know if this has been brought up already:

Have you considered the onomatopoeic influence in the sound association? From that point of view, it's hardly very surprising if several people associate the same sound with a similar concept ^^; If you think about "r" and how you associate it with aggression, don't animals growl when they're being defensive?

There are also several ways of pronouncing one phoneme. If you take /s/ for example, it can be sharp ("hiss" - sharpness of mind?) or soft (shh - not quite as sharp-minded ^^; ).
 
miu said:
Have you considered the onomatopoeic influence in the sound association? From that point of view, it's hardly very surprising if several people associate the same sound with a similar concept ^^; If you think about "r" and how you associate it with aggression, don't animals growl when they're being defensive?

There are also several ways of pronouncing one phoneme. If you take /s/ for example, it can be sharp ("hiss" - sharpness of mind?) or soft (shh - not quite as sharp-minded ^^; ).

Good point. That is more or less what I wanted to say, but not just though onomatopoeic influence - also personal sensibilities and perception.
 
Indian Linguistics may have something to say

Sorry to revive this hibernating thread. I didn't mean to post anything here for a long time, but I got sucked in today, because I just remembered reading in one footnote of a Sanskrit primer. It said something like this.

"The human palate is a small representaion of the human body.
The human body is a representation of the universe.
When a sound is uttered, the correseponding part of the body is affected, and so is that part of the universe."

I can't remember for sure. It was a long time ago. Probably some Hindu philosophy got mixed in (in my head.)

And he, the Hindu philosopher and the first phonologist in human history (other than those anon.s who invented and made subsequesnt improvement/modifications on writings), understood human language as closely related to the human body.

I know this is quite different in approach from what Maciamo is saying, but the intuitive aspect does have something in common. I do not remember the title of the book, or a key word to google it, but someone might remember.

This might be related: "The Vedic Indians: The first culture to come up with a detailed and accurate theory of phonetics: between the C7th and C5th BCE, texts appear which not only illustrate mature ideas, but also mention competing schools of thought! Panini"
 
I think that's an interesting thought.Right now it's way too late so I can't think of anything smart to say but the idea is interesting nonetheless :)
 
Just skimming over recent posts and this popped up. Good question Maciamo-san. I've always associated letters with feeling and, strangly, colours.
The letter B reminds me of family. Probably because my surname begins with a B, and my mothers maiden, and one of my grandmothers.
K to me is a vaguely sinister letter. Change Doctor into doktor, or director to direktor it give me images of old WWII films. If was a doctor I would prefer to be called Doktor. I think the same with V because of WWII films.
C is blue. I don't know why, it just is.
I don't know whether consonants affect the population of a country, I think is is more a personal thing and would probably give you an insight to a persons psychology than a nations.
 
Indo-European eymologies have interesting word groups

Instead of taking the universal approach or cultural approach, it is also proven fruitful to take the historical linguistic approach, as a language phenomenon is often best described in linguistic terms.

For example, words pertaining to light, flash, and reflection often have gl-gr- initials; glow, glitter, gold, glass...

Words having to do with the nose often have ns-sn-nz- initials; nose, snout, sneeze, snoop...

Words having to do with fire, burning, smelitng, cooking often begin with br-br-fr- initials; fire, burn, bread, brown, bronze...

Words having to do with the mouth, beak, or calling often begins with bk-pk-; beckon, beak, peck, pucker, (re)buke, bark, puke...

Sometimes the word groups transcend the boundaries of language families, which often becomes the grounds of proposing super-language families such as the Nostradic theory, the Eurasiatic theory, or World Language theory.

(g)lk~(m)lk: galac: milk... mel: honey, sweet

tr: cow, ox
 

This thread has been viewed 16651 times.

Back
Top