Writing
Sound Symbolism
That’s where sound symbolism can come to the rescue. Every letter in the alphabet is associated with one or more sounds that it can make â that’s sound symbolism. Often, a word’s semantic meaning far overshadows its sound symbolismâ¦as long as the person encountering it knows what the word means. If the word is foreign, strangely spelled, or completely invented, our brains fall back on what the word sounds like and whether we find that appealing or not.
Essentially, if we don’t recognize a word, we judge it by what it sounds like it should mean. Can be a very cool branding trick, if you know how to take advantage of it.