Symbols to shapes processing

Abstract The Bouba/Kiki (BK) effect is observed when a linguistic sound is associated with a shape. People usually associate the nonword bouba with a round shape, and kiki with a sharp shape ( Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001 ). In 2011, Nielsen and Rendall found that certain English letters (/k/, /p/, and /t/) and (/b/, /l/, /m/, and /n/) were associated with sharp and round shapes respectively. The BK effect was investigated in depth for the first time in Arabic in 2022 (Nassereddine) using Arabic Analogs to the English letters. Arabic participants’ performance was not consistent with previous research ( Nielsen & Rendall, 2011 ). The goal of the present study was to determine the roundest and sharpest Arabic letters by presenting all letters both visually and auditorily to Arabic speakers and have them say whether a letter shape or sound best maps on to the standard bouba and kiki shapes. The results revealed that Arabic does have both round and sharp letters, and that there is a strong influence of phonological features on this BK effect.