Synesthesia. Majjige and Mosaru

In one of the Reith Lectures the noted neuroscientist, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran talks about a phenomenon called 'Synesthesia'. When people with ‘Synesthesia’ see numerals they tend to associate them with a particular colour. In some cases sound can give raise to sense of smell. Ramachandran , in the lecture also suggested that we are all Synethetes' in a way. If we were to name a shattered pieces of glass and a round egg with names 'Abubba' and 'Kiki', most of us would name the pieces of glass as Kiki and round egg as Abuba. The shapes get associated with the inflections of the sound of words.

Now, this particular piece of information gets reminded to me many times in an interesting manner. In Kannada 'majjige' refers to buttermilk and 'mosaru' refers to curd. But I often get confused and use the word 'majjige' while referring to curd and vice versa! In Tamil the relation is more in line with Synesthesia. The word 'more' refers to buttermilk and 'thayir' refers to curd.

3 comments :: Synesthesia. Majjige and Mosaru

  1. Interesting and so true!
    Hv felt so so many times, but never knew it had a name too ;)

  2. I suck coz I only appear to be able to think of one joke and one joke alone...

    Why did the plane crash into the house????



    COZ THE LANDING LIGHT WAS ON!!

    Anonymous

    1:56 PM

  3. I seldom leave comments on blog, but I have been to this post which was recommended by my friend, lots of valuable details, thanks again.

    Anonymous

    10:08 PM