An experiment on ‘cute’ vowels in Japanese
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/TheLinguisticProceedings/2025/17/02/009/000695Keywords:
babyishness, cuteness, familiarity, sound symbolism, vowelsAbstract
This study experimentally examined which vowels can be associated with cuteness, or kawaii, in Japanese, from the perspective of sound symbolism. The results showed that /a, i/ were more likely to be perceived as ‘cuter’ than /u, e, o/ (when the surrounding consonants are all obstruents). To explain this result, I presented the babyishness and familiarity hypotheses.References
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