A new study reveals that newly hatched chickens associate the nonsense word 'bouba' with round shapes, challenging theories about human language evolution. Researchers found that 80 percent of 1-3 day old chicks moved toward rounded objects when hearing 'bouba' compared to only 25 percent for 'kiki'. This crossmodal correspondence appears in animals as distant as tortoises and dogs, suggesting it's not unique to humans.

First documented in 1947, the bouba/kiki effect has puzzled scientists for decades. Initial theories about phonetic similarities or alphabetic characters were debunked when studies showed the effect in infants as young as four months and across different languages. The effect's absence in adult primates led some to speculate it might be tied to complex language development, but the chicken study undermines that hypothesis.

Italian researchers Maria Loconsole, Silvia Benavides-Varela, and Lucia Regolin tested chicks because they're mobile and available immediately after hatching. The findings suggest the bouba/kiki effect represents a fundamental sensory processing mechanism rather than a language-specific ability. This crossmodal correspondence, where one sensory input influences perception of another, appears to be a widespread phenomenon across the animal kingdom.