Why the i's have it

Is there a physiological reason why we say "tick tock" rather than "tock tick?" Why does the "i" get first position in all of our i/o word combinations (as in "ping pong")? Writer and narrator Robert Krulwich explores the phenomenon in this "CBS Sunday Morning" video essay, featuring animation by Nate Milton and music by Buck St. Thomas.

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[lp-xlld]

This is something I have absolutely never thought about before...and now I won't be able to get it out of my head

[flagrantfouler]

Whoever produced this animation, promote them to Admiral

[eoijiyl]

I love this ...animation explaination...more please..😅

[samuelhilger]

Here's the answer:

Its all in the up-down aspect. The natural high intonation/pitch of "i" compared to the other natural vowel phonemes is the key. It corresponds to how we see the world. Nobody ever imagines down and up. Everything feels like up and down. We imagine a ball going up, then coming back down - not going down and coming back up. We imagine starting up chat and then coming back down and ending the topic - not ending a conversation and then starting back up. We imagine things adding up before being reduced - not things being less than 0 and then coming back up to the realm of natural numbers.

Btw, being a multilingual academic I can tell you, the phenomenon is not restricted to indogermanic languages such as English.

In so many aspects, our brains have been wired to observe reality in this way. Because of the differing natural pitch of vowel phonemes, its only logical that our speech patterns reflect this way of seeing the world.

[hummersd]

Love the artwork/animation. The lazy argument doesn’t quite make sense though, because you still need to say the second word that’s more “difficult”.

[leafygreen]

I can't wait to use this clip pic in my ELA class! ❤

[eoijiyl]

REMINDS ME OOF" THE ELECTRIC COMPANY"
from the late 70s..by the way almost all the teachers that was on that show are MAJOR stars now ie..Morgan freeman ...Rita Moreno... Hattie Winston... Bill NEVERMIND that one... but you get what I'm saying...lol
😅

[Vivalarosa]

I love this animation. Its not perfect. Its true 2D. 😅

[robertskolimowski]

Awesome👏 Something similar about idioms or slang, please🤞👌

[nickolias]

Would've been so cool if the footsteps slowed and became the ticking of a clock at the end

[shannonlowe]

Love this...sharing it with family and friends...

[janaeshepherd]

Ping Pong is the Chinese word for table tennis. That's why we call it Ping Pong.

[Blueeyedsoul]

Plus the words with I the first words make sense

[AndreyOnFire]

Perfect!...There is also the concept related to On and Off --- normally I and O ... and computer language 1 and 0... I believe that we have in our unconscious colective mind all those systems integrated as well.

[p.l.]

This was such an interesting piece... Loved the creativity!

[susannpatton]

I can sound like an E. I think that's why.

[pokeapple]

very well done segment, keep thinking about it

[jessecannone]

Or, what if it's because "I" is like "I am", "Me"... or, could it have something to do with the vibrational effects of these various sounds??? hmmm

[wdikan]

The preference for "tick tock" over "tock tick" and similar patterns in other word combinations like "ping pong" has to do with a linguistic phenomenon known as ablaut reduplication. This is a rule in English phonology where vowel sounds follow a specific order. The general pattern in ablaut reduplication is that the first word has a vowel sound closer to the front of the mouth, and the second word has a vowel sound closer to the back.

Here’s why this happens:

Phonetic Harmony: Our brains tend to prefer certain phonetic patterns over others because they sound more natural or harmonious. In the case of "tick tock, " the vowel sounds follow the pattern from front to back: "i" is a front vowel, and "o" is a back vowel. This creates a pleasing auditory effect.

Ease of Pronunciation: The shift from a high front vowel (like "i" in "tick") to a mid or low back vowel (like "o" in "tock") is generally easier to pronounce smoothly. It flows more naturally in spoken language.

Cultural and Linguistic Convention: Over time, certain patterns become standardized and are reinforced through repeated use. Once a particular reduplicative pattern like "tick tock" becomes established, it becomes the norm and is less likely to change.

In summary, the preference for "tick tock" over "tock tick" and similar patterns in word pairs is influenced by natural phonetic preferences and the ease of pronunciation, which have become entrenched in the linguistic conventions of English.

P.S. Thanks to ChatGPT

[barrym]

I was hoping this would explain the trend of why so many people write using lower case “i” instead of capitalizing it now.