Thoughts & Notions

Archive for June, 2010

Sound Symbolism

Friday, June 11th, 2010

bouba-kiki-effect

Look at the two shapes above. How would you pair these forms with the following words? Bouba and Kiki

There is a 95% to 98% likelihood that you paired the sharper sounds (obstruents) of the word “Kiki” with image on the left, and the softer sounds (sonorants) of “Bouba” with the softer image on the right.

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