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Grapheme-Color Synesthesia in an Abugida: a Bengali Case Study
Nicholas Root1, Pushpita Bhattacharyya1, Vilayanur S Ramachandran1
1Department of Psychology, University of California, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA.
Multisensory Research
|March 11, 2021
Summary
Grapheme-color synesthesia was studied in a Bengali speaker, revealing unique color experiences influenced by diacritics and conjunct graphemes. This case highlights how writing systems shape synesthetic perception.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Linguistics
- Psychology
Background:
- Grapheme-color synesthesia involves consistent color associations with letters/numbers.
- Most research focuses on alphabetic scripts, neglecting other writing systems.
- Abugida scripts, like Bengali, present a unique case for studying synesthesia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate grapheme-color synesthesia in a Bengali speaker using an abugida script.
- To explore how script-specific features (diacritics, conjunct graphemes) influence synesthetic experiences.
- To understand the interplay between linguistic properties and synesthetic phenomenology.
Main Methods:
- Case study of a single Bengali synesthete (MJ).
- Analysis of synesthetic color associations for Bengali graphemes, including diacritics and conjunct forms.
- Comparison with synesthetic experiences in other languages and writing systems.
Main Results:
- Diacritics in Bengali graphemes influenced perceived color, 'pulling' it towards the vowel's color.
- Complex synesthetic experiences were reported for conjunct graphemes, unique to Brahmi-derived scripts.
- Synesthetic associations were influenced by both language-specific orthography and universal linguistic properties.
Conclusions:
- The Bengali writing system uniquely shapes grapheme-color synesthesia.
- Further research on synesthesia in non-alphabetic scripts is crucial.
- Synesthetic phenomenology offers insights into brain-based grapheme representation influenced by language.
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