kiki and bouba
By Broadgate Circle near Liverpool Street Station. The rounded building on the right is called The Pavilion and houses a coffee shop.
Kiki and bouba are examples of sound symbolism - the tendency to associate sharp edged shapes with sharp sounding words (e.g. kiki) and soft edged shapes with soft sounding words (e.g. bouba). This tendency exists across diverse cultures - e.g. both American college students and Tamil speakers in India associate the words with corresponding shapes in the same way.
kiki and bouba
By Broadgate Circle near Liverpool Street Station. The rounded building on the right is called The Pavilion and houses a coffee shop.
Kiki and bouba are examples of sound symbolism - the tendency to associate sharp edged shapes with sharp sounding words (e.g. kiki) and soft edged shapes with soft sounding words (e.g. bouba). This tendency exists across diverse cultures - e.g. both American college students and Tamil speakers in India associate the words with corresponding shapes in the same way.