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Contrary to the assumption of modern linguistics, sound symbolism, which is the non-arbitrary relationship between sounds and meanings, exists. Sound symbolism, including the “Bouba–Kiki” effect, implies the universality of such relationships; individuals from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds can similarly relate sound-symbolic words to referents, although the extent of these similarities remains to be fully understood. Here, we examined if subjects from different countries could similarly infer the surface texture properties from words that sound-symbolically represent hardness in Japanese. We prepared Japanese sound symbolic words of which novelty was manipulated by a genetic algorithm (GA). Japanese speakers in Japan and English speakers in both Singapore and the United States rated these words based on surface texture properties (hardness, warmness, and roughness), as well as familiarity. The results show that hardness-related words were rated as harder and rough

New yorkUnited statesUnited kingdomCzech republicA pym tarragonaBouba kikiE hubbard oxfordBaluba malumaUniversitat rovirai virgiliBaluba malmaNihongo onomatope jitenGiongo gitaigoBouba ramachandranKiki ramachandranJapanese groupNational institute for physiological sciences