Do Pain and Joy Have a Universal Language?

Ouch! Ah! Aïe! The words we use when we stub our toe or receive a
pinch may point to a common way to express pain across languages.
Associate news editor Allison Parshall explores what linguistic
commonalities in expressions of pain and joy might mean for our
shared biology. Plus, Parshall and host Rachel Feltman chat about
onomatopoeias, the “bouba-kiki” effect and linguistic news you may
have missed in 2024. Recommended reading: Ouch! Linguists Find
Universal Language for Pain  How Our Thoughts Shape the Way
Spoken Words Evolve  My Synesthesia Transforms Speech into
Text I ‘See’ in My Head  Eight, Ocho, Acht Most Fascinating
Language Discoveries of 2024  E-mail us at
sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or
ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every
day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in
Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by
Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and
Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman with
guest Allison Parshall. Our show is edited by Fonda Mwangi with
fact-checking by Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck.
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