Tip of The Tongue - Universality

Universality

Tip of the tongue experiences occur in people regardless of gender. The tip of the tongue phenomenon is known to occur in young adulthood, middle age, and older adulthood. Tip of the tongue experiences in childhood have not been studied. Education level is not thought to be a factor in the experience of tip of the tongue states. Monolinguals, bilinguals, and multilinguals all experience tip of the tongue states, although with varying frequencies (see Effects of language).

Many languages other than English have equivalent colloquial terms for the tip of the tongue experience, suggesting that it is a common experience across cultures. In a study by B. L. Schwartz (1999), 45 of the 51 languages surveyed have an idiom referring to the tip of the tongue phenomenon that references the tongue, mouth, or throat as a metaphor. The direct English translations of these idioms are "on the tongue", "on the tip/point/head of the tongue", "on the top of the tongue", "on the front of the tongue", "sparkling at the end of the tongue", and "in the mouth and throat". Notably, the languages studied that did not have an equivalent idiom for the tip of the tongue were American Sign Language, Amharic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kalenjin, and Kiswahili. However, tip of the finger experiences are reported by signers.