Which sounds cuter, a Pikachu or a Charmander? Which sounds like it would be more likely to win in a fight, a Squirtle or a Blastoise? If you’re familiar with the world of Pokémon, you might have opinions based on your experiences with the games or the anime series, but even if you’re not familiar with these pocket monsters, or if you’re encountering new Pokémon you haven’t heard of before, you might still have a vague sense of which names sound big or small, cuddly or powerful.  

In this episode we get enthusiastic about what we can learn about language from studying Pokémon names, the delightful and entirely real linguistic subfield of Pokémonastics! Pokémon names have some unique advantages when it comes to studying sound symbolism. For one thing, the characters come with specific attributes, like size and power stats, which lets researchers make very precise comparisons between, say, the size of various characters and which vowels are in their names. For another, the characters are part of a multinational media franchise, meaning that the names have been translated into many different languages, and allowing for cross-linguistic comparisons between the exact same visuals and stats. In addition, since more Pokémon are added regularly, researchers can make up artificial character names and drawings to test specific hypotheses within an easy-to-explain framework. Whether you’re a big Pokémon fan or vaguely familiar with imaginary creatures in general, Pokémonastics is a fun window into how fictional universes can provide a grounding for real research.

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