Many languages use similar sounds for common objects

MIAMI – Nearly two thirds of the world's languages often use similar sounds for common objects, such as the "n" sound for nose, international researchers said Monday. The study challenges a long-standing principle of linguistics, which holds that the relationship between sound and meaning is completely arbitrary, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "These sound symbolic patterns show up again and again across the world, independent of the geographical dispersal of humans and independent of language lineage," said Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology at Cornell University. "There does seem to be something about the human condition that leads to these patterns. We don't know what it is, but we know it's there," added Christiansen, director of Cornell's Cognitive Neuroscience Lab.