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Mon 13 Sep, 2004 04:52 pm
"Onomatopoeia" is a word whose sound imitates the actual sound to which it refers, such as "pop," "sizzle," and "crash." As I am doing a survey of "Create a new onomatopoeia words and check for it are truely nonarbitrary as to sound and meaning."
I hope you guys can take a couple minutes to pronounce and try to test it is it truly nonarbitrary. Your first image when you heard that sounds. Do you agree of the meaning of the sounds that I wrote.
*Please make up some new onomatopeia words that you think is good (sounds and meaning). Thanks for your time and help.
(1) boo (sound of the car honk)
(2) cha ching (sound of the cash register open)
(3) yoh (sound of expression in Chinese- mean found out something)
(4) swet (sound of turn pages in book)
(5) sous (sound of eating noodles)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
thwp - sipping hot coffee
Well, to me, boo doesn't sound like a car horn, but if it does to you, go with it! (I'm thinking of the different sounds animals are supposed to make in different countries... to an American, dogs go Woof, cows go Moo, ducks go Quack, etc.)
Cha-ching isn't new. Yoh and bling-bling (also not new) are sounds, but what do they sound like? A person can find out something silently. Swet and sous are great. They do sound like those things and I never heard them before.
Sish, for the sound of wind through grass. My dog says Waf -- but I don't think that's good because he doesn't sound like DOG, just like himself, so it's not universal.
Thanks for an unusual topic!
Wy wrote:I'm thinking of the different sounds animals are supposed to make in different countries
That is something that has always struck me too. Why would a cock say cocorico in French, kukeleku in Dutch, kikeriki in Swedish and cockadoodledoo in English? (I haven't a clue what they sound like in African or Asian languages).
And if you think that the above onomatopoeic words are rather similar (when it comes to starting with and containing "k" fonemes), how about the sound of a pig: groink in French, knor knor in Dutch, nöf nöf in Swedish and oink oink in English (seems like the English borrowed from the French, but the others?). Baffling
I think it has to do with the phonological rules that are already present in the language. Obviously, the animals don't make the sounds of language as we know them to be, so it's all a matter of interpretation.
And the grammar of your first post is a little bit off.
Latvian pigs say 'rook rook' (spelled ruk ruk). And, in fact, a slang word for pig is rukshjkis (phonetic spelling here).
Are any other Latvian animals known as "noise they make"-shjkis?
Hm...good question. I'm not sure. Thinking it over.
It wasn't a bad post or anything. I didn't mean to offend, it's just that I had to read it three times.
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