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'Onomatopoeia' (occasionally spelled 'onomatopœia') is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object, such as "click," "buzz," or "bluuuh," or animal noises such as "oink", "quack", or "meow". The word is a synthesis of the Greek words "onoma" (name) and "poio" (verb meaning "to create") thus it essentially means "name creation".

Contents

Variations in onomatopoeia between languages

Uses of onomatopoeia

Manner imitation

Onomatopoeia in pop culture

See also

References

External links

Variations in onomatopoeia between languages

Onomatopoeic words exist in every language, although they are different in each. For example:

★ In Latin, ''tuxtax'' was the equivalent of ''bam'' or ''whack'' and was meant to imitate the sound of blows landing.

★ In Ancient Greek, ''brekekekex koax koax'' was used as the sound of a fatimah criying.

★ In German, ''peng'' is the sound a pistol makes.

★ In Russian, ''gaf gaf'' is the sound of a dog barking.

★ In Dutch, ''kukeleku'' indicates the characteristic sound of rooster's crow.

★ In Korean, ''meong meong'' (멍멍) is onomatopoeia for the sound of a dog barking.

★ In Chinese, ''miāo'' (喵) is the sound a cat makes.

★ In Japanese, ''doki doki'' (ドキドキ) is used to indicate the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart (and thus excitement).

★ Hindi ''dhadak'' and Urdu ''dhakdhak'' (''pronounced'' ) are words for a person's heartbeat, indicative of the sound of one single beat.

★ In Vietnamese, ''vù vù'' is used to describe the sound of strong wind, while ''vi vu'' is the sound of a gentle breeze.

★ In French, ''pan'' is used for the sound of a gun or cannon firing.

★ In Haitian Creole, ''bip'' imitates the sound of a collision (ex. a car crash).

★ In Turkish, '' hapşurmak'' is the verb for ''to sneeze'', based on the sound ''hapshoo'' made by a person who sneezes.
Sometimes onomatopoeic words can seem to have a tenuous relationship with the object they describe. Native speakers of a given language may never question the relationship, but because words for the same basic sound can differ considerably between languages, non-native speakers might be confused by the idiomatic words of another language. For example, the is ''bow-wow'' (or ''woof-woof'') in English, ''wau-wau'' in German, ''uau-uau'' in Interlingua, ''ouah-ouah'' in French, ''gaf-gaf'' in Russian, ''hav-hav'' in Hebrew, ''wan-wan'', ''bau-bau'', or ''kyan-kyan'' in Japanese, ''guau-guau'' in Spanish, ''bau-bau'' in Italian, ''vov-vov'' in Danish, ''woef woef'' [as English woof] or ''waf waf'' in Dutch, ''wou wou'' in Cantonese, ''hau-hau'' in Finnish and Polish, ''haf-haf'' in Czech, ''hav-hav'' (pronounced like English how-how) in Slovak, ''guk guk'' in Indonesian, ''bub bub'' in Catalan, ''ghav-ghav'' in Modern Greek, ''wou wou'' in Teso, ''gâu gâu'' in Vietnamese and ''meong meong'' in Korean.

Uses of onomatopoeia

Some other very common English-language examples include ''hiccup'', ''bang'', ''beep'', and ''splash''. Machines and their sounds are also often described with onomatopoeia, as in ''honk'' or ''beep-beep'' for the horn of an automobile, and ''vroom'' or ''brum'' for the engine. Science fiction laser weapons' sound is often described like ''zap''. For animal sounds, words like ''quack'' (duck), ''roar'' (lion) and ''meow'' (cat) are typically used in English. Some of these words are used both as nouns and as verbs.
Agglutinative languages or synthetic languages flexibly integrate onomatopoetic words into their structure. This may evolve into a new word, up to the point that it is no longer recognized as such. One example is English "bleat" for the sheep noise: in medieval times it was pronounced approximately as "blairt" (but without an R-component), or "blet" with the vowel drawled, which is much more accurate than the modern pronunciation.
An example of the opposite case is "cuckoo", which, due to continuous familiarity with the bird noise down the centuries, has kept approximately the same pronunciation as in Anglo-Saxon times and has not changed to having its vowels as in "furrow".
Verbum dicendi is a method of integrating onomatopoeia and ideophones into grammar.
Occasionally, words for things are created from representations of the sounds these objects make. In English, for example, there is the universal fastener which is named for the onomatopoeic of the sound it makes: the zip (in the UK) or zipper (in the U.S.). Many birds are named from the onomatopoetic link with the calls they make, such as the Bobwhite quail, chickadee, the cuckoo, the chiffchaff, the whooping crane and the whip-poor-will. In Tamil, the word for crow is ''kaakaa''. This practice is especially common in certain languages such as Māori and, therefore, in names of animals borrowed from these languages.
Advertising uses onomatopoeia as a mnemonic, so consumers will remember their products, as in Rice Krispies (US and UK) and Rice Bubbles (AU) which make a "snap, crackle, pop" when one pours on milk; or in road safety advertisements: "clunk click, every trip" (click the seatbelt on after clunking the car door closed; UK campaign) or "click, clack, front and back" (click, clack of connecting the seatbelts; AU campaign) or "click it or ticket" (click of the connecting seatbelt; US DOT campaign).

Manner imitation

Main articles: Ideophone

In many of the world's languages, onomatopoeia-like words are used to describe phenomena apart from the purely auditive. Japanese often utilizes such words to describe feelings or figurative expressions about objects or concepts. For instance, Japanese ''barabara'' is used to reflect an object's state of disarray or separation, and ''shiiin'' is the onomatopoetic form of absolute silence (used at the time an English speaker might expect to hear the sound of crickets chirping). It is used in English as well with terms like ''bling'', which describes the shine on things like gold, chrome or precious stones.

Onomatopoeia in pop culture

★ Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein is an early example of pop art, featuring fighter aircraft being struck by rockets with dazzling red and yellow explosions.

★ Marvel Comics have trademarked two words of their own invention: "THWIP!" , the sound of Spider-Man's web shooter, and "SNIKT!" the switchblade-sound of Wolverine's claws locking into place. Marvel also uses the sound effect "BAMF" to signify Nightcrawler's teleportation.

★ In the Garfield comic strip and television series, there is a running gag about a "splut," which is usually the sound of a pie hitting someone in the face.

★
★ For example, Garfield once kicked Odie, but instead of 'kick' it said 'blagoonga', with Garfield remarking to Jon that Odie needs to be tuned

★ In the 1960s TV series “Batman”, comic book style onomatopoeias such as “WHAM!”, “POW!” and “CRUNCH” appear onscreen during fight scenes. This is often the subject of parody, for example in the ''Simpsons'' episode "Radioactive Man" where the onomatopoeic words are replaced with nonsense such as "SNUH!", "NEWT!" and "MINT!".

★ Ubisoft's XIII employed the use of comic book onomatopoeias such as “BAM!”, “BOOOM” and “NOOOO!” during gameplay for gunshots, explosions and kills, respectively. The comic-book style is apparent throughout the game and is a core theme, as the game is an adaptation of a comic book of the same name.

★ The onomatopoeia that is said to be heard at a typical Disco Biscuits (a popular jamband) show is "UNTZ." This description seems to have originated from an interview with Bob Dylan, who said "I kept hearing this,'UNTZ..UNTZ..UNTZ..UNTZ..' sound in the background of all the music...fun time, though...lots of young kids with dilated pupils."

★ In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, the name of the Houyhnhnm's is an onomatopoeia for the whinny of a horse.

★ Todd Rundgren wrote a humorous song "Onomatopoeia" which uses many examples in this "Love Song". Examples in the song start out reasonable and start to get more ludicrous as the song goes on.

★ The comic strip For Better or For Worse is notorious for using non-onomatopoeic verbs as onomatopoeias, such as "Scrape," to indicate a person shaving, or "Tie," to illustrate someone tying a string around a package.

★ A well-known rhetorical question is "Why doesn't onomatopoeia sound like what it is?".

★ Brian Preston, a popular Quizzo night host in Philadelphia used words like "CRASH", "BOOM", and "FART" to describe onomatopoeia. Unfortunately, "FART" is a non-onomatopoeia (although its Proto-Indo-European language ancestor ''perd-'' (compare Greek περδομαι and Avestic ''prd'') is more realistic).

★ "Kerplunk" was used in the video game Final Fantasy VIII as the name of one of the Guardian Force Cactuar's attacks. For the Guardian Force Tonberry, the humorously out of place onomatopoeia of "DOINK!" is written onscreen during its powerful knife stab attack.

★ In the video game , an onomatopoeia appears wherever an attack hits its target.

See also

★ Sound symbolism

References

★ Crystal, David (1997) ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Second Edition'' ISBN 0-521-55967-7

★ Greek Grammar, , Herbert Weir, Smyth, Harvard University Press, 1920, ISBN 0-674-36250-0

External links

★ Some Onomatopoetic Words (grouped by category)

★ Derek Abbott's Animal Noise Page

★ Tutorial on Drawing Onomatopoeia for Comics and Cartoons (using fonts)

★ [1] - Page with audio sounds of common farm/household pets noises from various countries

★ Guide on How to Use Onomatopoeia in Poetry