Daily Themes 3: Sound
Are you more kiki or bouba? LMK.
Welcome back to Daily Themes, the vertical where I take you through one of Yale’s oldest writing classes, week by week. Today is all about SOUND.
Before we begin, a few notes:
Even if we aren’t reading aloud, the sound of a string of words is something we automatically perceive. Listen to that little voice in your head.
You can manipulate your reader’s experience of sound to reach desired effects, like a soothing, melodic poem or a snappy, incisive op-ed.
Alliteration refers to the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words (the sly snake slithers slowly).
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds (the kitty cat ate a cricket), while assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds (long road home).
Phonesthemes are words that sound like what they mean. Examples include flicker, sniff, glow, splash, and blast.
Onomatopoeia is a type of word that phonetically imitates the kind of sound it describes. Examples include hiss, meow, boom, and crash.
The Bouba-Kiki effect is a phenomenon in which people associate certain sounds with certain shapes. Kiki sounds are spiky, while bouba sounds are round. Read these sentences and try to hear the difference:
Kiki: “The piercer would then take another plank from a holster, attach the steel spear tip, and continue filing the new rack” - Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019).
Bouba: “The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit” - James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).
Kiki sounds typically include p, t, k, e, i, and a; Bouba includes b, d, g, o, m, n, and ng.
While bouba sounds may be softer and more harmonious, that doesn’t mean that you should favor them over kiki ones. Writing doesn’t necessarily have to be beautiful. Kiki sounds can punch up a passage. Sharp words can create an effect of annoyance, or anxiety, or harshness.
Each theme should be between 250-300 words. If the prompt has two parts, split the word count accordingly.
From this letter onward, all Daily Themes prompts and my sample responses will be behind the paywall. You can read 1. METAPHOR and 2. SYNTAX for free if you want to get a sense of what they’re like! I hope to see you on the other side <3