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How do you "experience" language?

Koowie

Member
Aspies tend to be visually based, right? (I'm sure there are exceptions)
How many of y'all out there "see" language- for instance, interpret languages and/or words as having colors and/or shape?
If not, how do you perceptive language? What comes to mind when you think of a noun or English?
If you speak more than one language, do you find that a sort of inner "colored screen" goes up, like a mental image of blue will turn into orange/red when you switch from English to Spanish?
Just curious to see all the different ways of processing this sort of thing, I'm sure there are quite a few!
 
No, I have colors for numerical digits.

Language feels more like shapes/designs to me.
 
I see words in my mind. When I learned French I had a really difficult time understanding spoken words that I couldn't spell. Until I saw the word written down I had a lot of trouble hearing it correctly. Right now I am taking ASL, which so far seems to fit perfectly with my visual preference for learning.
 
I see the words like print in my mind and then I try to translate the words into the thing they represent (so I see the thing in my mind as an image or a spatial map -- or feel or hear it, or sometimes briefly taste or smell it in an echo-ish/remembering way.....if none of these things happens then I don't understand and the words remain just words, devoid of meaning).
 
i am not within your criteria [aspie,im LFA] but i am extremely visually minded and it takes a bit of time to process what im thinking/seeing into language and to process what people are saying into visual representations.
i dont see written style language,i hear it but i struggle to process what i hear i dont take in information that way very well.

i tend to use a lot of easy read/pictorial based material to help me understand things better.
 
I don't really visualize language. I have a bit of a brain-boner for languages though.
Language is my plaything, I love coming up with new words or using words in unusual combinations, creating elaborate wordplay. Words by themselves sometimes conjure up images though, involuntarily.
 
What you are describing is called Synesthesia. For instance, when I was a proofreader and editor, I saw misspelled words "hovering" over the page, in dark black and bold. (See attached example)

When I listen to music, I "see" music notes. I can see a person's aura (color) depending on how they are feeling and my daughter (who also has it) can "smell" white paint. We used to tease her about it as a child, until I figured out what was going on.

Also, if someone describes an injury, I can "feel" a sensation go all the way up from the back of my knees to my hips, so I often have a physical "expression" of what that feels like (similar to knees buckling).

A baby's laughter creates warm hearts (I can see) and tingles I can feel in my toes.

Here's an online test: The Synesthesia Battery

I'm using an example I found on the Internet, so it's not "exact," but the way the word is "bold," is how I proofread. Editing requires reading the copy and changing as you go, but "proofreading" (the first step) was easy; I didn't even have to concentrate because the words were just there.
 

Attachments

  • synesthesia example.webp
    synesthesia example.webp
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I get some videos in my mind for words. None I can really put into words. If I was good as making pictures then I might be able to interpret them that way.
 
Aspies tend to be visually based, right? (I'm sure there are exceptions)
How many of y'all out there "see" language- for instance, interpret languages and/or words as having colors and/or shape?
If not, how do you perceptive language? What comes to mind when you think of a noun or English?
If you speak more than one language, do you find that a sort of inner "colored screen" goes up, like a mental image of blue will turn into orange/red when you switch from English to Spanish?
Just curious to see all the different ways of processing this sort of thing, I'm sure there are quite a few!
In some cases I process things like the color pink as a loud high pitched sound and yellow has a mid range fussy hum.
 
Personally I say pictures but that isn't quite it, like impressions I translate into pictures and/ or something like words but not like on a page of text.
 
And I always see the word representation of a number as having the numeric representation in place of the first letter. 5ive or 7even, like that.And I have dyscalculia.
 

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