Re: CHAT: The Conlang Instinct

Gerald Koenig wrote:
>
> >Status: RO
> >
> >Quoth Gerald Koenig:
> >> Anyway, I stumbled across an article yesterday on synesthesis in
> >> Discover Magazine that got me thinking. I read it because I used to
> >> meet every week in a class with someone who mentioned one day that she
> >> could taste my words. I could hardly imagine that.  According to the
> >> article she is not alone. Here is a table from the article that
> >> describes 175 synesthetes:
> >>
> >> Numbers and letters evoking colors    69%
> >
> >*WOW*.  I always thought it was a bit weird, but I do this, and never
> >realised it was a widespread thing.  I see some words but *especially*
> >numbers as colours.  Or rather, shades of grey.  I had no idea other
> >people did too!
>
> Hola, Don,
>
> It looks like you're in good company here on Conlang. Since I posted,
> three people on the list have mentioned that they have some synesthetic
> sensibilites; I just checked the article I quoted from the Dec.
> Discover magazine and the occurrence is thought to be one in 2000 in the
> general population.
Make that four people on the list - I definitely have synesthetic
sensibilities - each number has a definite color, and each letter as
well.  Different mathematic operations have certain pictures in my head,
for example, multiplication is drawing a diagonal line; I view a year
(or a month, week, etc) as a sort of loop...Lots of things have their
own pictures.  And speaking of another really strange quirky thing:  I
count letters, both in speech (my own and other people's) and especially
in print.  It takes me a ridiculous amount of time to read anything
because I count the letters in each word, each sentence, words per
sentence, average letters per word, etc etc.  Does that have a fun name
like synesthesia does?

Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
http://nicole.conlang.org