ext_13655 ([identity profile] padparadscha.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] bloodyrosemccoy 2008-08-09 09:32 am (UTC)

Not usually--they may reflect something else that "looks like" the sound, but often the colors show up later, and it's anybody's guess as to whether they'll match their Roman equivalent.

I do use the synesthesia heavily in another way, though--languages themselves have color schemes based on the sounds, the syntax, the way it looks when you write it in Roman, and a lot of different factors I couldn't even fully name. Often working out the phonology creates a color scheme for the language, which also influences wheter I'll represent a sound with a diacritic (like รก) or a diphthong (like aa) or something. Individual words get the same treatment, too--and a lot of words you wouldn't expect to be onomatopoeic are in my head.* It's not like other people will know that Luamavan is a rainbow language, or that :rimulet is much more subtle and elegant, or that Rredrra has a predatory edge to it, but I do.


*True of a few English words, too--for me, "bottle," "swelter," and "garnet" are all onomatopoeias.

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