Do You Taste Words?

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I do. A few examples: The word "though" tastes like roasted potatoes to me. "And" tastes like those little cinnamon things you put on cookies. "Time" is a lovely slow-cooked beef roast. And so on. ("So" is buttered toast...)

I've never met anyone else that tastes words. Not that I go around telling many people, mind you. ("Mind" is canned pineapple.) I tried researching on the 'Net about this, to no avail.

Hi. That sounds like synesthesia. That's my guess.

Can't say that I do.

Tim

No, but your post is making me hungry!

WCHandy --

I hope someone else here has this, though, else I'm liable to think of myself as weird or something.

Never heard of something like that before.

check this out, i did a search for "tasting words" and found this! is this anything like what you were talking about?
<quote>'I can taste my words'

Jane Elliott
BBC News Online health staff



James is reluctant to tell people about his synaesthesia
James Wannerton lives in a house that tastes of mashed potato and is situated in a fruit gum town.
He has a toffee flavoured nephew and used to have a condensed milk granny.

His next door neighbours are a mixture of yoghurt, jelly beans and a subtle hint of a waxy substance.

James is not mad, nor is he on a taste orientated drug trip - he has a neurological condition called synaesthesia, which mixes up his senses.

Colours

To him verbal and written words can conjure up taste sensations.

"This doesn't affect every word or sound, although I have a horrible feeling that it could if I allowed it, " he said.

Say the word safety and James, aged 44, will imagine lightly buttered toast. When someone says or writes the word jail, it sparks the taste of cold bacon.

Synaesthesia is frequently based around colours - letters of the alphabet, or sounds, are associated with specific shades - and a number of artists are thought to have had the condition

It also runs in families and is thought to be linked to the X-chromosome, as it is more common in women.

This doesn't affect every word or sound, although I have a horrible feeling that it could if I allowed it

James Wannerton

Less frequent is the taste-based synaesthesia experienced by James, a systems analyst from Blackpool.

James says his condition means having conversations can be difficult.

As people talk he finds his mind wandering to the taste image conjured up.

'Complex'

He said he was reluctant to tell people about his synaesthesia because it was difficult to understand.

"I don't tell people about it because it is an odd thing.

"If you say you have this and that this happens to me they expect you to be able to do something exceptional."

Dr Jamie Ward, of University College, London, who has studied the condition, said it should be seen as a genuine phenomenon in search of a psychological explanation.

In his article in the Psychologist, the British Psychological Society's Journal, he says that if synaesthesia could be proved it would increase understanding of how the brain works.

About one in 2,000 people were affected by synaesthesia and of these only 10% had the taste form, he said.

The tastes/word imagery was often complex.

"One patient, when you said the word six to him, he thought of vomit, and the word seven and he said Spangles (a type of sweet).

"It is kind of interesting that some of the words are linked with childhood.

"Bizarrely there are often phonetic relationships between the triggering word and the name that is used to describe the taste that is elicited.

"For example, cinema may taste of cinnamon rolls and Chicago may taste of avocado."

Dr Ward said about twice as many women than men suffered from the condition.</quote>

Yes:

Roast Beef
Chicken with Honey
Chocolate cake
Cookies
Vanilla cake
Gummi Bears
Sour Candies
Garlic Bread

I dont feel too good...

Totally.

The word "package" kind of tastes like meat to me.

Also peoples voices have a shape and colour.

Wow! Yes, squier , that’s exactly my deal. Thank you so much for posting!

I’d heard of synesthesia , of course, but only the type that causes colors and whatnot.

Wow. Cool.

Curious that they used the word “suffered” in that article. What’s so painful about slow-cooked roast beef, I ask?

I thought it interesting that the one guy tastes “seven” as candy. I do, too. More like a lemony tarty tasting candy for me.

Now I’m off to search “tasting words.”

hale_bopp, “package” for me is most definitely spearmint Wrigley’s gum.

That's a type of synaesthesia called chromaesthesia. You probably heard of that because it's the most common type of synaesthesia.

There's a book called The Man Who Could Taste Shapes. Although, beware, the author says it's really rare, which isn't true since synaesthesia is definitely not uncommon amongst auties and auties aren't exactly uncommon either. I just don't think there's been much research on autistic-version synaesthesia. Or really on synaesthesia in general since many synaesthetes don't discuss it and it's not exactly something that necessarily causes them to suffer so why seek help?

Thanks for the book rec, Sophist.

As I was searching for "tasting words," I came across a blog called "Beyond the Sunrise," and the author posted a blog about an article he'd read about my type of synethesia -- totally making fun of it. I could practically hear his eyes rolling. So, of course, I just HAD to make a little comment there...

Smells have colors to me. Once when I was writing a story I described a specific smell as "pink" and thought nothing of it until someone asked me why.

Sometimes I hear light, it's usually when I'm riding in a car at night and somebody is approaching and doesn't shut off their high beams, it's a really high pitched sound.

Instead of saying cherry flavoured * I say red flavoured *.

i have been thinking about this while writing today: i realised i find some relations to this, nothing like yours: for example, in disney's version of atlantis, in the scene where the tough crew invites milo to join them by the fire in the cave in which later that night they encouter "fireflies" i taste a green apple with a peice of hair on it, it's because the first time i saw the movie i was, you guessed it, eating a green apple and found someone's hair on it, this was when i was 6 ( i am now almost 13) but i think this is just the scene triggering memories, other memories cause these things, too, for example, whenever i approach one of my friends, i get a feeling of guilt, from when in 5th grade i had a habit of just raising my hand whenever i see someone else's hand up, and a visitor in our class who was talking about niccotine asked a question about people who have trouble breathing.