Objecting Saussure's arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, sound symbolism – the systematic association of sounds with meanings – is systematically found across languages. It may have provided a ground for our ancestors to generate an initial communication system, and later move toward symbolic signs. Sound symbolic associations in French between phonetic segments or phonetic features and various attributes of animals (size, dangerousness…) were tested. A first experimental setting disclosed no notable association, but a second did. These associations furthermore do not occur in French animal names. These results are debated in the light of scenarios of language origins and evolution.