Fat words and thin words
You may not realize it but the names of some foods can make them sound heavier or lighter according to a New York University study. As part of the study participants were asked to decide which ice cream they would rather buy, one called Frish or one called Frosh. The only information they had to judge the treat was on its name and nothing else. At the end of the experiment people rated Frosh as being smoother, creamier and richer. But how did they get this all from a name? According to linguists this scenario is a prime example of symbolism, a phenomenon which links the sound of a word with its meaning. The way one word can be seen as emanating a larger size lies in what vowels it is made up of. Front vowels are the ones in which the tongue is high up in the front of the mouth, like the vowels in teeny, thin and little. In many languages these words tend to indicate small and light things. By contrast back vowels are made with the tongue lower in the back of the mouth, like the vowels in bold, gargantuan or large. One theory of why front vowels sound light and back vowels heavy is the Frequency Code where humans learned to associate smaller things with a higher pitch. This most likely stemmed from anim ?2v?W&R6???&?&G2??R??v???F6?VB???6W2?B???2??RFVW6?V?B??