Sound and Language

     I think one of the most interesting ways in which sound occurs is in spoken language. I am bilingual. I speak both English and Spanish and I have to say that there is something about the different language sounds that makes each language have its own mood and poetry. It seems to me that much in the same way that different instruments, although producing the same note, have different colors and tambers, so too, do languages.
     I am taking a class called Cognitive Psychology of Music where we explore, basically, the physics of sound. At least so far, the class seems to have little to do with psychology itself. All we have done is explore how sound is created, what gives notes different colors, and acknowledge that music is a purely psychological experience of humans (and some other animals, like primates) that remains largely a mystery. Somehow, sound seems to be linked to our memories and helps us make meanings of the world and I think this is something that starts very early on. Example: language.
     Spanish is a completely different musical genre from music and you can do things with it that you cannot with English. You can feel things with it that you cannot with English. At least, this is how I experience it. I think it is linked to memory because a line from one of Cherrie Moraga's poems comes to mind; it describes the sounds of the word "tortilla" literally mimicking the making and rolling of tortillas in your tongue and by female relatives' hands gathered around a table, passing down their wisdom to the young ones.
     I think the way everyone experiences sound is incredibly intimate because it is one of the senses most strongly linked to memory. I think the fact that it is so critical to capture the notes of a language in young life in order to master the music of a language, it must mean something deep is happening with memory and meaning. That is what amazes me about sound. It's importance in early life for later life, and the psychological responses we have to them. For me, English and Spanish are two different musical genres and I feel blessed to have the privilege of knowing how to hear and dance to both. It makes me wonder what other types of music and feelings exist out there that I probably can't even imagine.