Backward speech can manifest in different forms depending on the reversed unit. At word level, reversal may be done by rearranging phonemes (e.g., /bæskɪt/ becomes teksab/tɪksæb/) or syllables (e.g., /bæskɪt/ becomes /kɪtbæs/) . At sentence level, these operations may be performed while constituents are also reversed (i.e., starting from the last word and going backwards to the first one, such that /bæskɪt ɪs fʌn/ becomes ʌf sɪ tɪksæb/) or while their syntactic ordering is preserved within the phrase (e.g., /bæskɪt ɪs fʌn/ becomes /tɪksæb sɪ nʌf/) . Both forms of backward speech may be supported by enhanced inner visualization of written words or phrases or heightened working memory abilities . Accordingly, elevated word reversal skills could be mediated by the capacity to store and (re)order verbal or visual information . Of note, backward speech proves particularly feasible in languages with transparent or relatively transparent orthography, such as Spanish , as this allows for phonemes to nearly always retain their identity (same sound) irrespective of their position and surrounding segments.
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