Re: Orthographic Sound Symbolism

I wrote:
>Daivd Peterson wrote:
>>In a message dated 04/7/02 2:44:25 PM, and_yo@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>>
>><< Now, as anybody investigated the possibility that it
>>isn't the phones [i] and [a] that have these connotations, but the graphs
>>{i} and {a}? Most linguistis are used to the Latin alphabet, in which {i}
>>is
>>undeniably smaller than {a}, and my gut feeling is that my association of
>>[i] to smallness is at least partly orthographically motivated, but has
>>anyone made a scientific study? >>
>>
>>     Wouldn't the Japanese examples counter this, since Japanese doesn't
>>use
>>Latin orthography?
>
>It would - I wasn't aware of any Japanese examples. I assume that the kana
>for sylllables containing /i/ aren't suspiciously small!
On second thoughts, it perhaps would. If it's only Japanese, it could be
mere coincidence, or, if we're really unlucky, a special quirk of the
Japanese psyche to associate [i]=small and [a]=big.

                                       Andreas

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