Olfactory impressions are said to be ineffable, but little systematic exploration has been done to substantiate this. We explored olfactory language in Huehuetla Tepehua—a Totonac-Tepehua language spoken in Hidalgo, Mexico—which has a large inventory of ideophones, words with sound-symbolic properties used to describe perceptuomotor experiences. A multi-method study found Huehuetla Tepehua has 45 olfactory ideophones, illustrating intriguing sound-symbolic alternation patterns. Elaboration in the olfactory domain is not unique to this language; related Totonac-Tepehua languages also have impressive smell lexicons. Comparison across these languages shows olfactory and gustatory terms overlap in interesting ways, mirroring the physiology of smelling and tasting. However, although cognate taste terms are formally similar, olfactory terms are less so. We suggest the relative instability of smell vocabulary in comparison with those of taste likely results from the more varied olfactory experiences caused by the mutability of smells in different environments.

中文翻译：

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嗅觉音素的挑战：从 Totonac-Tepehua 的角度重新考虑不可表达性

据说嗅觉印象是不可言喻的，但很少有系统的探索来证实这一点。我们探索了 Huehuetla Tepehua 中的嗅觉语言——墨西哥伊达尔戈的一种 Totonac-Tepehua 语言——它有大量的意音，即具有声音符号特性的词，用于描述感知运动体验。一项多方法研究发现 Huehuetla Tepehua 有 45 个嗅觉音素，说明了有趣的声音符号交替模式。嗅觉领域的细化并不是这种语言独有的。相关的 Totonac-Tepehua 语言也有令人印象深刻的气味词典。这些语言的比较表明，嗅觉和味觉术语以有趣的方式重叠，反映了嗅觉和味觉的生理学。然而，虽然同源的味觉术语在形式上是相似的，但嗅觉术语则不那么相似。