Takeluma, by Peter Cho. The connection between language, sound and meaning has always intrigued me, and seemingly, Cho too. Above are the consonants for his invented phonetic writing system for the english language.

“Modern-day linguists believe that there is no inherent relationship between a word and what it signifies. “Dog” could mean Cat, for instance, or vice versa. Poets and marketing experts alike think otherwise - the sounds that words make can evoke images and elicit an emotional impact for a listener.’

A cognitive psychology experiment first conducted in 1929 by Kohler gives evidence to the claim that phoneme soundsa re not arbitrary, that the basic components of speech might themselves carry some kernel of meaning.

When asked to match two images to the invented words MALUMA wand TAKETE. The experiment suggest that a cross-sensory mapping, a kind of synesthesia, may take place when we use language.

The project, called TAKELUMA, is a phonetic writing system for representing the sounds of English. in this system, when phones are spoken, the leave their mark on a continuous line of sound. TAKELUMA is an attempt to give shape to the sounds of speech and the hidden meanings they convey.”