Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia (occasionally spelled onomatopœia) is a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, that imitates the sound it is describing, and thus suggests its source object, such as “bang”, “click”, "buzz" or "pop" or animal such as “moo”, “oink”, “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 Dutch, kukeleku indicates the characteristic sound of rooster's crow.
• In Korean, meong meong is onomatopoeia for the sound of a dog barking.
• In Chinese, wang wang is the sound of a dog barking.
• 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 /ˈd̪əɖək/) is the word for a person's heartbeat, indicative of the sound of one single beat.
• In Haitian Creole, beep 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 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, uau-uau in Interlingua, ouah-ouah in French, gav-gav in Russian, haoo-haoo 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 and Slovak, guk guk in Indonesian, "bub bub" in Catalan

Uses of onomatopoeia

Some other very common English-language examples include bang, beep, splash, and ping pong. Machines and their sounds are also often usually described with onomatopoeia, as in honk or beep-beep for the horn of an automobile and vroom or brum for the engine. A laser weapon's sound is often described like pew pew. 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. Also, 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; zipper in the U.S.). 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.

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).

Some animals are named after the sounds they make, especially birds such as the cuckoo and chickadee. 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.

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 for example 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 onomatopoeic 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 chrome, or precious stones and metals. It can also describe such as a noise or as in a comic book such as "bam" or "kapow".

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 1960s TV series “Batman”, comic book style onomatopoeias such as “WHAM!”, “POW!” and “CRUNCH” appear onscreen during fight scenes.
• 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.

See also

• Primal sounds

Wikipedia information about Onomatopoeia This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Onomatopoeia". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.