Linguistic Symbolism and Cultural Bridges/ Exploring Death, Sound, and Alphabetic Concepts Across East and West

Abstract—This brief paper explores the intersection of linguistic symbolism and cultural synthesis through an interdisciplinary analysis of language as a mediator of human experience across Eastern and Western traditions. Beginning with the Cantonese term for "death" (sei2) and its phonetic resonance with emotional expressions like a sigh, the study examines subjective and objective dimensions of mortality’s perception. It extends this framework to cultural symbols like the west (sai1) and the setting sun, before broadening into Hebrew’s role as a historical linguistic bridge, with letters such as samech and peh symbolizing universal faculties of felt-sense and communication. Further, conceptual parallels between Hebrew and Greek alphabets are analyzed within a pre-scientific worldview, complemented by neuroscientific and psychological insights into cognitive processing of language and loss. This work contributes to linguistic anthropology and cognitive science by highlighting language’s capacity to encode shared emotional and cultural realities, offering a foundation for future cross-cultural research.