kiki

kiki
Red prickles on a rose stem
Pronunciation	/ˈki.ki/
Usage	2023: Obscure44-category system, Uncommon66-category system (29% ↗︎ ) Most speakers don't use this word.2022: Uncommon (21%)
Book and era	nimi ku lili (post-pu)
Part of speech	Content word

kiki is an obscure content word relating to sharp and pointy objects.

Etymology

This picture is used to demonstrate the bouba/kiki effect. When asked to assign the names "kiki" and "bouba" to these shapes, many people tend to label the shape on the left "kiki".

The word kiki is derived from a nonsense word created for the 2001 psychological study by V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard on sound symbolism, named the bouba/kiki effect. The word in Toki Pona was coined by akesi kon Nalasuni in 2020.

Semantic space

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The semantic space of kiki includes sharp and pointy objects.

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as kiki:

spiky²21–40% of respondents, sharp¹11–20% of respondents, angle^½1–10% of respondents, point^½1–10% of respondents

sitelen pona

The most common sitelen pona glyph for kiki (kikikiki) is a closed, jagged starburst shape. Like the glyphs for jaki and ko, it can be drawn flexibly as any spiky shape like a many-pointed star.

Other glyphs for kiki variations include a pentagon (kiki2) or triangle (kiki3) with pinched corners, and two concentric triangles (kiki4), inspired by the glyphs for sike and leko.

• 

  Starburst kiki

• 
• 

  2-triangle kiki

Further reading

• "kiki" on lipu Linku