Onomatopoeia

For the supervillain, see Onomatopoeia (comics).

Onomatopoeia (occasionally spelled onomateopoeia or onomatopœia, from Greek ονοματοποιία) is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, suggesting its source object, such as "click," "clang," "buzz," or animal noises such as "oink", "quack", "flap", "slurp", or "meow". The word is a synthesis of the Greek words όνομα (onoma, = "name") and ποιέω (poieō, = "I make" or "I do") thus it essentially means "name creation", although it makes more sense combining "name" and "I do", meaning it is named (& spelled) as it sounds (e.g. quack, bang, etc.).

Variations in onomatopoeia between languages

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

Frog croaking:

• In Ancient Greek, brekekekex koax koax
• In English, ribbet ribbet
• In Russian, qvah qvah
• In Spanish, croac croac"
• In Swedish, ko ack ack ack
• In Filipino, kokak kokak
• In Hungarian brekk brekk

Rooster crowing:

• In Arabic, kuku kukuku
• In Bulgarian, kukurigu (кукуригу)
• In Dutch, kukeleku
• In French, cocorico
• In English, cock a doodle doo
• In German, kikeriki
• In Hungarian kukurikú
• In Romanian, cucurigu
• In Russian, koo-ka-re-koo
• In Spanish, quiquiriquí or quiquiriquiquí
• In Filipino, titilaok

A dog barking:

• In Bulgarian, bow bow
• In Catalan, bup bup
• In English, woof woof
• in Estonian, auh auh
• in French, woof woof
• in Finnish hau hau
• In German, wau wau
• In Greek, gav gav (γαβ γαβ)
• In Hungarian vau vau
• In Japanese, wan wan (わんわん)
• In Korean, meong meong (멍멍)
• In Romanian, ham ham
• In Russian, gaf gaf
• In Spanish, uau uau
• In Swedish, vov vov, voff voff
• In Filipino, kaw kaw

A cat's mewing/crying:

• In Chinese, miāo (喵)
• In Danish, mjau
• In English, meow, miaow (UK), or mew
• In French, miaou
• In German, miau
• In Hungarian miau
• In Japanese, nya (にゃあ)
• In Russian, myau
• In Spanish, miau
• In Filipino, ngyaw

A cannon firing or gun shot:

• In English, bang
• In French, pan: a gun or cannon firing
• In German, peng or päng: a pistol shot
• In Hungarian bumm
• In Icelandic, búmm or bamm

Collision sounds:

• In Gilbertese. beeku: a collision.
• In Haitian Creole, bip: the sound of a collision (eg. a car crash).
• In Latin, tuxtax was the equivalent of bam or whack and was meant to imitate the sound of blows landing.

Stuttering:

• In Hebrew, bakbook: bottle, and gimgoom: stutter.

Heart beating:

• In English thump, thump
• In Hindi dhadak and Urdu dhakdhak (pronounced /ˈd̪əɖək/): a person's heartbeat, indicative of the sound of one beat.
• In Japanese, doki doki (ドキドキ): the (speeding up of the) beating of a heart (and thus excitement).

Sneezing:

• In English, Achoo!
• In French, Atchoum
• In German, Hatschi!
• In Icelandic, Atsjú!
• In Russian, Aptschee!
• In Spanish, ¡Achís!
• In Turkish, hapşırmak (the verb for to sneeze): is based on the sound hapshoo made by a person who sneezes.
• In Filipino, Atsing!

Kisses:

• In Malayalam, umma: the sound of a kiss.
• In Russian, chmok
• In Japanese, chuu
• In Filipino, tsup or mwah

Crow calling:

• In English, caw caw
• In French, crôa crôa
• In German, krah krah
• In Hungarian kár kár
• In Russian, karr karr
• In Swedish, kra kra
• In Tamil, kaka

Wind blowing:

• In Vietnamese, vi vu: the sound of a gentle breeze, and vù vù: the sound of a strong wind.

Geese calling:

• In English, honk honk
• In German, schnatter schnatter

Water dripping:

• In English, drip drip
• In Spanish, ploc ploc; pluip pluip

Reasons for variations

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, ouaf-ouaf in French, gaf-gaf in Russian, hav-hav in Hebrew, wan-wan or bau-bau in Japanese, ão-ão in Portuguese, 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, voff-voff in Icelandic, 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, vaL vaL in Tamil, wang wang' in Mandarin, meong meong in Korean, and "hong hong" in Thai.

In the case of frog croaking, the spelling can vary because species of frog found in another area may make another noise: Ancient Greek brekekekex koax koax for probably Rana ridibunda; English ribbit for species of frog found in North America; English verb "croak" for Rana temporaria.

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. In Science fiction the sounds made by laser weapons are often described as "zaps" . For animal sounds, words like quack (duck), bark (dog), 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 onomatopoeic words into their structure. This may evolve into a new word, up to the point that it is no longer recognized as onomatopoeia. 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 as onomatopoeia 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, the killdeer, chickadee, the cuckoo, the chiffchaff, the whooping crane and the whip-poor-will. In Tamil and Malayalam, 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 article: 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 or a pin dropping in a silent room). 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.

• 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 (which was replaced with the lesser-known schlikt during the period he was left without the adamantium covering on his bones). Marvel also uses the sound effect "bamf" to signify Nightcrawler's teleportation.
• In Doctor Who comic strips, the sound of the Tardis is represented as vworp! vworp!
• 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 wgam!, 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 snuh!, newt! and mint! which are references to other Simpsons episodes.
• Ubisoft's XIII employed the use of comic book onomatopoeias such as bam!, boom 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?". Ian M. Banks references this in his novel Use Of Weapons, when a character claims that the word onomatopoeia is spelled "just the way it sounds!".
• 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 on-screen during its powerful knife stab attack.
• In the video game Brave Story: New Traveler, an onomatopoeia appears wherever an attack hits its target.
• The fictional Vorpal blade from the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carrol goes "snicker-snack" when used.
• The January 8, 2008 comic of Ozy and Millie featured a panel in which Millie repeats the word "Splorsh" and Ozy quips "I've noticed you find Onomatopoeia extremely distracting."
• "Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss", recorded by The Bloodhound Gang in 2005 for their "Hefty Fine" album simulated the driving beat of most popular House and Rave music styles.
• In one Captain America comic, the accidental use of the word "wank" was found hilarious by many teenagers.
• The marble game KerPlunk is an onomatopoeia for the sound of the marbles dropping when one too many sticks has been removed.

See also

• Sound symbolism
• Animal sounds
• Vocal learning
• Giongo

References

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

• Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. pp. p. 680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

External links

• Derek Abbott's Animal Noise Page
• Tutorial on Drawing Onomatopoeia for Comics and Cartoons (using fonts)
• Article on using onomatopeia and sound to enchance writing and poetry.
• WrittenSound, onomatopoeic word list