Riddle: of the words “bouba”, “malouma”, “kiki” and “tékété”, which are round and which are pointed?
The question may make you smile and yet, asked to anyone around you or tens of thousands of kilometers away, whatever the person's mother tongue and culture, the probability is high that the answer will be "
bouba and malouma are round,
kiki and tékété are pointed
.”
This may seem completely trivial, but not to researchers.
Indeed, this type of correspondence is very rare in language: the word "car" for example ("
car
" in English) in no way prejudges its form and really has nothing universal.
And this is true for almost all words, in all languages.
Words that mean nothing
As Mathilde Fort, teacher-researcher in cognitive sciences at the University of Grenoble - Alpes, explains, “
this effect was discovered around a hundred years ago.
It greatly intrigued researchers…
This article is reserved for subscribers.
You have 81% left to discover.
Flash sale
€4.49/month for 12 months
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Log in