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[[Image:Onomatopia_ball_whack.png|thumb|250px|The sound of hitting a ball can be described as "whack".]]
In [[rhetoric]], [[linguistics]] and [[poetry]], '''onomatopoeia''' 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]]".
In [[rhetoric]], [[linguistics]] and [[poetry]], '''onomatopoeia''' 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]]".


Revision as of 17:44, 16 September 2006

Look up onomatopoeia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In rhetoric, linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia 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".

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, 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).
  • Whereas in Hindi, dhadak (pronounced /ˈdəɖək/) is the word for a person's heartbeat, indicative of the sound of one single beat.

Sometimes onomatopoeic words can seem to have a tenuous relationship with the object they describe. Native speakers of a given language might never question the relationship; however, 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 sound a dog makes is bow-wow (or woof-woof) in English, wau-wau in German, ouah-ouah in French, gaf-gaf in Russian, hav-hav in Hebrew, 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 onomatopoeia

Everyday sounds

Some other very common English-language examples include:


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" or chuga-chuga" for the steam pistons, "choo-choo" or "woo-wooo" for the whistle.
  • Cash register - "ka-ching"/"ca-ching"/"cha-ching"/"che-ching"/"ker-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.

Manner imitation

In some languages onomatopoeia describes a phenomenon apart from the purely auditive. Japanese often utilizes onomatopoeia to describe feelings or figurative expressions about objects or concepts. For instance, Japanese barabara and shiiin are onomatopoeic forms reflecting a scattered state and silence, respectively.[1] See also Japanese sound symbolism.

Onomatopoeia in advertising

Advertising uses onomatopoeia 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; New Zealand sun safe campaign)

Onomatopoeic 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 onomatopoeic of the sound it makes: the zip (in the UK); less onomatopoeiacally zipper in the US.

Many birds are named from the onomatopoeic 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.

Onomatopoeia in pop culture

Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein.
  • Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein is an early example of pop art, featuring empty fighter aircraft being struck by rockets with dazzling red and yellow explosions.
  • "BAMF!", the resulting sound Nightcrawler makes when transports himself.
  • In the 1960s TV series "Batman", comic book style onomatopoeias such as "WHAM!", "POW!" and "CRUNCH" appear onscreen during fight scenes.
  • The DC Comics superhero Green Arrow has battled a villain named Onomatopoeia.
  • In the video game Final Fantasy VII, the chocobo makes the noise "Kue" (クエ) in the original Japanese versions (this has been transliterated as "Kweh" or "Wark" in the English translations).

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Crystal pg. 176

References

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

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