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Onomatopoeia in Linguistics

A key component of language is its arbitrariness and what a word can represent, as a word is a sound created by humans with attached meaning to said sound. No one can determine the meaning of a word purely by how it sounds. However, with the class of onomatopoeia, these sounds are much less arbitrary; they are connected in their imitation of other objects or non-human made sounds in nature. Vocal sounds in the imitation of natural sounds doesn’t necessarily gain meaning, but can gain symbolic meaning. An example of this sound symbolism within a language, such as with English, is at the beginning sound of words starting with sn-. Generally, words beginning with this sounds can symbolize concepts of the nose (ex. Sneeze, snot, snore). This doesn’t mean that all words with that sn- sound can symbolize the concepts of a nose, but on a level we recognize a sort of symbolism associated with the sound itself. Difficult to categorize, onomatopoeia, while a facet of language, is also in a sense outside of the confines of language.

Within the context of linguistics, onomatopoeia is described as the connection, or symbolism, of a sound that is interpreted and reproduced within the context of a language, usually out of mimicry of a non-human made sound. It is a figure of speech, in a sense. Considered a vague term on its own, there are a few varying defining factors in classifying onomatopoeia. In one manner, it is defined simply as the imitation of some kind of non-vocal sound using the vocal sounds of a language, like the hum of a bee being imitated with a “buzz” sound. In another sense, it is described as the phenomena of making a new word entirely.

Onomatopoeia work in the sense of symbolizing an idea in a phonological context, not necessarily constituting a direct meaningful word in the process. The symbolic properties of a sound in a word, or a phoneme, is related to a sound in an environment, and are restricted in part by a language's own phonetic inventory, hence why many languages can have distinct onomatopoeia for the same natural sound. Depending on a language’s connection to a sound's meaning, that language’s onomatopoeia inventory can differ proportionally. For example, a language like English generally holds little symbolic representation when it comes to sounds, hence why English tends to have a smaller representation of sound mimicry then a language like Japanese, which overall has a much higher amount of symbolism related to the sounds of the language.

Onomatopoeia in the evolution of language

In ancient Grecian philosophy, onomatopoeia were used as evidence for how natural a language was considered at the time, as it was theorized that language itself was derived from natural sounds in the world around us, and is where symbolism in sounds is seen as deriving from. Some linguist even hold that onomatopoeia may have been the first form of language among humans.

The symbolism which sounds become associated with has been theorized to play a hand in the creation of language; sounds that are associated with natural objects then go on to form words with said sounds. An example of this is gl- in the beginning of a word to denote something that is shining or iridescent (ex. Glitter, glisten, gleam).

The role of Onomatopoeia in early Language acquisition

When first exposed to sound and communication, humans are biologically inclined to mimic sounds heard in the world, whether they are actual pieces of language or arbitrary sounds in the natural world. This early on in development, an infant will vary between sounds that are well established within the phonetic range of the language(s) most heavily spoken in their environment, or “tame” onomatopoeia, and the full extent of sounds capable of the vocal tract, or “wild” onomatopoeia. As one begins to acquire their first language, however, the amount of “wild” onomatopoeia drop off in favor of “tame” onomatopoeia, as it is congruent with the sounds of their now native language.   

During the native language acquisition period, it has been documented that infants react strongly to the more wild speech features they are exposed to, compared to more tame and familiar speech features. Though, the results of testing this have been inconclusive, and can vary with factors of language and just individual infant.

In the context of language acquisition, sound symbolism has been shown to play an important role. The association of foreign words to subjects and how they relate to general objects, such as the association of the words takete and baluma with either a round or angular shape, has been tested to see how languages symbolize sounds.

Onomatopoeia in other languages

Japanese

Onomatopoeia, or giongo in Japanese, are found commonly in in the Japanese language, from day to day conversation to even serious news. In general, all onomatopoeia in Japanese can generally be categorized into 3 types:

• Giseigo: Onomatopoeia that mimic human and animals. (ex. WanWan [the bark of a dog])
• Giongo: Onomatopoeia that mimic general noises in nature or inanimate objects. (ex. Zaazaa [rain on a roof])
• Gitaigo: Onomatopoeia that describe states of being, non-sounds. ( ex. Mushimushi [uncomfortably warm])

Japanese also utilizes a system of sound symbolic words called mimetics. Though not entirely different from onomatopoeia, words that are mimetic are generally distinguished from onomatopoeia. Mimetic, or gitaigo in Japanese, words are a phonological representation of some kind of state of being, or something that doesn’t exactly make sound.

Though not exclusive, it is common for Japanese onomatopoeia to go through the process of reduplication.

Malay

There is a documented correlation within the Malay language of onomatopoeia that begin with the sound bu- and the implication of something that is rounded, that the sound of -lok within a word can convey curvature in such words like lok, kelok and telok (locomotive, cove and curve respectively.)

Arabic

Within the Qur’an, written in Arabic, instances of onomatopoeia are documented. Out of about 77,701 words there are 9 words that are onomatopoeic, 3 which are animal sounds (ex. mooing), 2 which are sounds of nature (ex. thunder)  and 4 that are human sounds (ex. Whisper or groan.)

Changes for "Onomatopoeia" page

I'm thinking of adding information pertaining to the history of the study of onomatopoeia, onomatopoeia in other languages and onomatopoeia in the context of linguistics.

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