60-second Science

Ouch! Ah! Aïe! The words we use when we stub our toe or receive a pinch may point to a common way to express pain across languages. Associate news editor Allison Parshall explores what linguistic commonalities in expressions of pain and joy might mean for our shared biology. Plus, Parshall and host Rachel Feltman chat about onomatopoeias, the “bouba-kiki” effect and linguistic news you may have missed in 2024. Recommended reading: Ouch! Linguists Find Universal Language for Pain  How Our Thoughts Shape the Way Spoken Words Evolve  My Synesthesia Transforms Speech into Text I ‘See’ in My Head  Eight, Ocho, Acht Most Fascinating Language Discoveries of 2024  E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.  Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. This epi