article

In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopœia is a figure of speech that employs a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates the sound it is describing, and thus suggests its source object, such as "bang" or "click", or animal such as "moo", "quack" or "meow". It can also be spelled without the ligature as onomatopoeia.

Onomatopœic 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, koax was used as the sound of a frog croaking.
  • In Japanese, doki doki is used to indicate the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart (and thus excitement).
  • In Swedish, pata brax is used to indicating the coming of a fart of older people.
  • Whereas in Hindi, the word Dhadak (pronounced ) is the word for a person's heartbeat, indicative of the sound of one single beat.
  • Turr, and Tiss are the Kurdish for loud and silent wind passing respectively.

Sometimes onomatopœic words have a very tenuous relationship with the object they describe. The sound a dog makes is bow-wow (or woof-woof) in English, ouah ouah in French, gaf-gaf in Russian, and wang-wang in Chinese.
Some animals are named after the sounds they make, especially birds such as the cuckoo and chickadee. This practice is especially common in certain languages such as Māori and therefore in names for birds borrowed from these languages.

Examples and uses of onomatopœia

Everyday sounds

Some other very common English-language examples include:

  • Bam
  • Bang
  • Beep
  • Boing
  • Bonk
  • Boom
  • Burp
  • Boosh
  • Buzz
  • Clang
  • Cuckoo

Machine sounds

Aside from the above, machines are usually described with:
  • Automobile - "honk" or "beep-beep" for the horn, "vroom" for the engine, "screech" for the tires
  • Train - "clickety-clack" crossing rail splices (when tracks were individual sections, not welded), "choo-choo" for the steam pistons, "woo-wooo" for the whistle.
  • Cash register - "ka-ching"/"ca-ching"/"cha-ching"/"che-ching"
  • Jet - "whoosh"
  • Electric guitar power chord - "Kerrang"

Animal sounds

For animal sounds, these words are typically used in English:

Some of these words are used both as nouns and as verbs.

Non-auditory onomatopœia

It is sometimes the case that an item of onomatopœia describes a phenomenon apart from the aural. The Japanese language is especially renowned for utilizing onomatopœia to describe soundless concepts. For instance, Japanese bara bara and shiiin are onomatopœic forms reflecting a scattered state and silence, respectively. These words are considered to be imitative without being auditory. (See Japanese sound symbolism.)

While almost all examples in common English usage imitate sounds, the language is not entirely devoid of non-auditory onomatopœia. A few such words have gaining parlance recently, including bling bling, the "sound" of light reflecting off diamonds; and the Simpsons-inspired "yoink", the "sound" of stealing something. Another example would be flump, which seems to perfectly sum up the 'soundless experience' of flumping (dropping) heavily into/onto a settee or chair when exhausted.

Onomatopœia in advertising

Advertising uses onomatopœia as a mnemonic so consumers will remember their products:
  • Rice Krispies (US and UK) and Rice Bubbles (AU) - "Snap, crackle, pop" when you pour on milk.
  • Alka-Seltzer - makes a "plop, plop, fizz, fizz" noise when dunked in water.
  • Cocoa Puffs - a cartoon cuckoo is "cuckoo" for them.
  • Road safety: "clunk click, every trip" (click the seatbelt on after clunking the car door closed; UK campaign)
  • Sunburn precautions: "Slip, slop, slap" (slip on a shirt, slop on the suncream, slap on a hat; Australian safety campaign)

Onomatopœic names

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 onomatopœic of the sound it makes: the zip (in the UK); less onomatopœiacally zipper in the US.

Many birds are named from the onomatopœic link with the calls they make, such as the Bobwhite quail, Chickadee, the Cuckoo, the Whooping Crane, and the Whip-poor-will.

Some names for human cultures are derived from the sound of their apparently incomprehensible languages. For example, the tartars of Asia, and barbarians in Europe, named respectively by the Chinese and the Greeks.

Onomatopœias in pop culture

  • The images Blam (1962) & Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein are two of the earliest examples of pop art, featuring empty fighter aircraft being struck by rockets with dazzling red and yellow explosions.
  • In the 1960s TV series "Batman", comic book style onomatopœias such as "WHAM!", "POW!" and "CRUNCH" appear onscreen during fight scenes.
  • Many Onomatopœias evolve into full-fledged slang and eventually work their way into popular vernacular or even into recognized words. Some examples include "bang", which is common slang in ebonics and hiphop, as well as urban slang in the forms of "bangin'" meaning good, as in "this stuff is bangin'!"
  • In the Strong Bad Emails from homestarrunner.com, 'Preeeow!' is a noise made when Strong Bad's dot-matrix printer prints out the 'click here to email Strong Bad' page
  • The Marvel Comics X-Men character Wolverine makes the sound snikt when extending his adamantium claws, while his teammate Nightcrawler makes the sound bamf when teleporting.
  • The DC Comics superhero Green Arrow has battled a villain named Onomatopoeia.
  • Fap and schlick are the sounds of male and female masturbation, respectively, popularized by Sexy Losers

See also

External links

Linguistics | Onomatopoeia

Onomatopeia | Onomatopoesie | Onomatopeya | Onomatopeo | Onomatopeia | نام‌آوا | Onomatopée | Onomatopea | Onomatopea | אונומטופיה | Onomatopee | Lydord | Onomatopeja | Onomatopeia | Ономатопея | Onomatopoeia | Onomatopoeettinen | Onomatopoesi

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Onomatopœia".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world