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If you’ve never experienced it, how would you know, right?
That can apply to many things in life, but I’ve often wondered what deaf people “hear” in their heads.
Inner dialogue? Silence? I really have no idea.
But that’s about to change.
Let’s hear what deaf people had to say about this on AskReddit.
1. Thinking in sign language.
“My mom is profoundly deaf and I asked her this same question (totally not a stupid question!)
She said she thinks in ASL.
I have caught her signing to herself just like I sometimes talk to myself.”
2. Imaginary world.
“For the first 5 years of my life i was technically deaf.
I couldn’t hear anything.
I remember thinking by closing my eyes and imagining the thing I wanted to think. So I would close my eyes and see my own imaginary world.
I can still do it but only in complete silence. It’s a trait I will forever hold but I’m not mad at it.
It can be very helpful in some situations!”
3. The inner voice.
“I can hear my own voice in my head, or the version of it that I hear, but the inner voice thing only happens when I am thinking about conversation or actively thinking about that voice.
Most of my thoughts are images or words and ideas without a voice attached.”
4. Reimagining images.
“Before I got surgery for my cochlear implant/before learning ASL, I don’t exactly recall knowing about any “mental functionalities” like using a thinking voice.
Most of my mental uses were re-imagining images in visual thoughts (if I wanted a hotdog, I’d visualize a hotdog). Besides that, my dreams were like silent films (and 95% still often are silent even after my surgery to help me hear).
After that and being able to hear for some years, at some point, I developed an “inner voice” which just… doesn’t have any clear vocal sound to it? Yet, at the same time, kind… of… does? Kinda weird/hard to explain.
It’s a jump between “muffled ‘speaking’ sound as I think” and “hollow echoes” for my normal thinking voice, and when I read fiction with characters, for those who have pre-set voiced I re-imagine them in my head as to how they would act it out and it would ‘sound’ just like the tone I’d hear from the media they’re from.
For the stories that aren’t adapted into any audio format, I make them up in my head and try to make them sound distinct if I felt like it, haha.
My friends (non-CI) have told me they either don’t mentally see/”hear” anything at all and have no idea the concept I’m trying to explain or they visualize floating hands signing to them in their mind space. I don’t think in the latter at all, except when there are signs I’m trying to remember/reference.”
5. Deep and high pitches.
“Naturally we can’t even describe what it sounds like as we don’t really understand sound in the way you do.
Maybe the basics like deep and high pitches but the difference between notes or octaves are something only understood through theory (i.e. reading about them).
We don’t understand what makes a singer good but we for sure know how to tell if it’s a good beat (provided it’s loud enough to feel).
As such, speaking for myself here – my inner voice is more literally like thinking. A mixture of instinctual understanding and the words that describe the meaning I want to express.
I am a writer so words are quite colorful to me. They convey a myriad of imagination. I also am a philosopher so I admire and observe closely the metaphysics at play here.
Words can occasionally come out in English as it is best expressed through English. Some come out as sign language as there are sayings that only make sense in sign language. It’s a blend of both as well as the raw emotional output that form my thoughts.
Also, there is the silence in between the thoughts. Depends on how much you pay attention I suppose.”
6. Raised in a hearing world.
“Was born profoundly deaf. Wore hearing aids from 6 months old and replaced it with a cochlear implant at 15. I only have one, don’t hear out of the other ear unless I opt to get another one for bilateral hearing. I was never taught how to sign.
I was raised in a hearing world. People don’t even realize I’m deaf most of the time until they see the implant. I’m a bit of an outlier I guess. I’m not involved in the deaf community though I do have a couple of deaf friends who both talk and sign.
My voice sounds a lot cooler in my head than what it really is, probably the same for most people.”
7. How you’re raised.
“Deaf profound here, did surgery on right ear at 2, later left ear at 14 or so, I have inner voice whole time.
Never ASL, I learned basic of ASL in high school. So not surprised, consider I started hearing sound when very young. Its a good question.
I supposed its related to how we was raised, if we was raise ddoing ASL, then we might ASL in our head, otherwise it’s a voice.”
8. Interesting.
“Born profoundly deaf here. Used hearing aids for the first 20 or so years of life, and also used American Sign Language.
Since I was able to use hearing aids and get a general idea of what words and phrases sound like, my inner voice speaks. However, when I dream- it’s a combination of both spoken language and ASL.
Sometimes my dreams are even subtitled! Growing up watching tv with the captions and subtitles on all the time had an effect I guess.”
9. Thinking in ASL.
“I’m profoundly deaf, grew up with deaf parents.
ASL is my first language, “mother hands” lol. Anyway, I noticed that I often think either in ASL or written English. Sometimes English words have no ASL signs for some English words, basically untranslatable so I often think in English words if no ASL sign are available.
Sometimes it’s more abstract. But very often it’s ASL in my mind. I also have an inner voice where I sometimes have a conversation with myself in ASL.”
10. Adapted.
“I asked my niece this.
She said she had an inner voice but it was more a feeling than a voice. She described it as feeling the vibrations from loud music.
When she had her surgery, and she heard voices for the first time, her inner voice.”
We’d like to hear from more deaf people.
If this means you, please tell us what your inner voice sounds like.
Talk to us in the comments, thanks!
