Autism

Syllables – A Myth of Universality in Linguistics

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Neurodiversity Crowd 2

Stripped to its very basics, rules of English phonetics can seem pretty universal among speakers. We can all distinguish between consonants like b and m, we can all hear the difference between a whisper and a shout, and we can all divide speech into syllables, even if it might require clapping our hands a bit.

Except that last part might not be as universal as you might think.

I was 8 years old when we were taught syllables in school. While all the other kids would clap along and split words like pea/nut and foot/ball, I wouldn’t. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t hear what they heard. I couldn’t hear syllables. At age 27, I … ↪

Who Understands Comics? Or: How I learned that I don’t draw bad comics, I just read backwards

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image001 1

To my delight and misfortune, I have been making comics since my 2017 Erasmus plus stay at Aarhus University.

I was never very good at drawing, but someone once told me that I was good at making circles, so I stuck with it. When I shared my early comics with my family, I got mixed reactions. In a WhatsApp correspondence, one family member resorted to “wow”, while the other offered their interpretation: “charming illustrations! I suggest not to try to understand the humor. It’s cool that there is a recurring character that repeats throughout. It creates empathy. Even if I do not understand the humor.” 4 years later I was still at it, and sent some more comics to my … ↪