An onomatopoeia , from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία; ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for
"I make", adjectival form: "onomatopoeic" or "onomatopoetic") is a word that phonetically
imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeia
refers to the property of such words. Common occurrences of onomatopoeias include animal
noises such as "oink", "meow", "roar" or "chirp". Onomatopoeias are not the same across all
languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system they are part
of; hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English, dī dā in Mandarin, or katchin
katchin in Japanese. Although in the English language the term
onomatopoeia means the imitation of a sound, in the Greek language the compound word onomatopoeia
means "making or creating names". For words that imitate sounds the term Ηχομιμητικό
is used. Ηχομιμητικό from Ηχώ meaning "echo or sound" and μιμητικό
meaning "mimetic or imitation".
Cross-linguistic examples
Uses of onomatopoeia In the case of a frog croaking, the spelling
may vary because different frog species around the world make different sounds: Ancient Greek
brekekekex koax koax for probably marsh frogs; English ribbit for species of frog found in
North America; English verb "croak" for the common frog.
Some other very common English-language examples include hiccup, zoom, bang, beep, moo, 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. When someone
speaks of a mishap involving an audible arcing of electricity, the word "zap" is often used.
For animal sounds, words like quack, moo, bark or woof, roar, meow/miaow or purr, cluck
and baa are typically used in English. Some of these words are used both as nouns and
as verbs. Some 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", 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 its vowels have not changed as they have in the word "furrow".
Verba dicendi are a method of integrating onomatopoeia and ideophones into grammar.
Sometimes things are named from the sounds they make. In English, for example, there
is the universal fastener which is named for the onomatopoeic of the sound it makes: the
zip or zipper. Many birds are named after their calls, such as the Bobwhite quail, the
Weero, the Morepork, 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. Cross-cultural differences
Although a particular sound is heard similarly by people of different cultures, it is often
expressed through the use of different consonant strings in different languages. For example,
the "snip" of a pair of scissors is su-su in Chinese, cri-cri in Italian, riqui-riqui
in Spanish, terre-terre or treque-treque in Portuguese, krits-krits in modern Greek and
katr-katr in Hindi. Similarly, the "honk" of a car's horn is ba-ba in Chinese, tut-tut
in French, pu-pu in Japanese, bbang-bbang in Korean, baert-baert in Norwegian, fom-fom
in Portuguese and bim-bim in Vietnamese. Onomatopoeic effect without onomatopoeia words
Onomatopoeic effect can also be produced in a phrase or word string with the help of alliteration
and consonance alone, without using any onomatopoeic words. The most famous example is the phrase
"furrow followed free" in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. It may be noted
that the words "followed" and "free" are not onomatopoeic in themselves, but in conjunction
with "forrow", they reproduce the sound of ripples following in the wake of a speeding
ship. Similarly, alliteration has been used in the line "as the surf surged up the sun
swept shore...", to recreate the sound of breaking waves, in the poem "I, She and the
Sea". Comics and advertising
Comic strips and comic books made extensive use of onomatopoeia. Popular culture historian
Tim DeForest noted the impact of writer-artist Roy Crane, the creator of Captain Easy and
Buz Sawyer: It was Crane who pioneered the use of onomatopoeic
sound effects in comics, adding "bam," "pow" and "wham" to what had previously been an
almost entirely visual vocabulary. Crane had fun with this, tossing in an occasional "ker-splash"
or "lickety-wop" along with what would become the more standard effects. Words as well as
images became vehicles for carrying along his increasingly fast-paced storylines.
In 2002, DC Comics introduced a villain named Onomatopoeia, an athlete, martial artist and
weapons expert who often speaks sounds. Advertising uses onomatopoeia as a mnemonic,
so consumers will remember their products, as in Alka-Seltzer's "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.
Oh, what a relief it is!" jingle, recorded in two different versions by Sammy Davis,
Jr. Rice Krispies and Rice Bubbles make a "snap,
crackle, pop" when one pours on milk. During the 1930s, the illustrator Vernon Grant developed
Snap, Crackle and Pop as gnome-like mascots for the Kellogg Company.
Sounds surface in road safety advertisements: "clunk click, every trip" or "click, clack,
front and back" or "click it or ticket". Manner imitation
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. It is used in English as well with terms like bling, which describes the glinting
of light on things like gold, chrome or precious stones. In Japanese, kirakira is used for
glittery things. Examples in media
James Joyce in Ulysses coined the onomatopoeic tattarrattat for a knock on the door. It is
listed as the longest palindromic word in The Oxford English Dictionary.
Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein is an early example of pop art, featuring a reproduction of comic
book art that depicts a fighter aircraft striking another with rockets with dazzling red and
yellow explosions. Marvel Comics has 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 coming out of his hands. 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. In the 1960s TV series Batman, comic book
style onomatopoeias such as wham!, pow!, "biff!", crunch and "zounds" 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, and the game is an adaptation of a comic book of the same name.
In book 4 of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, the name of the Houyhnhnms is an
onomatopoeia for the whinny of a horse. The chorus of American popular song writer
John Prine's song "Onomatopoeia" cleverly incorporates onomatopoeic words: "Bang! went
the pistol. | Crash! went the window. | Ouch! went the son of a gun. | Onomatopoeia | I
don't wanna see ya | Speaking in a foreign tongue."
A well-known rhetorical question is "Why doesn't onomatopoeia sound like what it is?". Iain
M. Banks references this in his novel Against a Dark Background, when a character claims
that the word onomatopoeia is spelled "just the way it sounds!".
The marble game KerPlunk is an onomatopoeia for the sound of the marbles dropping when
one too many sticks has been removed. The Nickelodeon cartoon Kablam is implied
to be onomotapoeic to a crash. In a 2002 episode of The West Wing, Rob Lowe
and Ian McShane have a conversation about how the word 'frumpy' "onomatopoetically sounds
right". Each episode of the TV series Harper's Island
are given an onomatopoeic name which imitates the sound made in that episode when a character
dies. For example, in the episode titled "Bang" a character is shot and fatally wounded, with
the "Bang" mimicking the sound of the gunshot. In The Transformers, the Autobot Warpath speaks
with onomatopoeia in his speech, which includes "Wham", "Bang", "Blam", "Whack", "Woosh",
"Bam", "Zoom", "Zap", "Boom", "Wow", "Clang", "Pow", and "Boing".
See also Anguish Languish
List of animal sounds List of onomatopoeias
Sound symbolism Japanese sound symbolism
Vocal learning Sound mimesis in various cultures
References Notes
General references Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia
of Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55967-7. Smyth, Herbert Weir. Greek Grammar. Cambridge
MA: Harvard University Press. p. 680. ISBN 0-674-36250-0. External links
Derek Abbott's Animal Noise Page Over 300 Examples of Onomatopoeia
BBC Radio 4 show discussing animal noises Tutorial on Drawing Onomatopoeia for Comics
and Cartoons WrittenSound, onomatopoeic word list
Examples of Onomatopeia