Home > Onomatopoeia
In linguistics and poetry, onomatopoeia is the device of a word, or occasionally, a grouping of words, with a sound imitating the sound it is describing, such as "bang", "click", "fizz", "hush". For animals, the following words are typically used in English:- Bee - " Buzz"
- Cat - "Meow" ( US) / "Miaow" ( UK)
- Chickadee - "Chickadee"
- Chicken - "Cluck", Rooster "Cockadoodledoo"
- Cow - "Moo"
- Crow or ravenSee text Many large black birds of the genus Corvus are called ravens . Other birds in the same genus are the smaller crows, jackdaws, and rooks. With its black plumage, croaking call, and carrion-eating, the Raven was considered a bird of ill omen long b - "Caw"
- DogThis article discusses the domestic dog. For other members of the dog family, see Canidae. The dog is a canine omnivorous mammal that has been domesticated for somewhere between 14,000 and 150,000 years. In those millennia, the dog has developed into hund - "Woof" or " Grr"
- DuckDendrocygninae Oxyurinae Anatinae Merginae The word duck was also used as slang for the WWII amphibious vehicle called a DUKW. The word duck meaning the bird, came from the verb "to duck" meaning to bend down as if to get under something, because of the w - "Quack"
- FrogA frog is a fresh-water amphibian which changes from a tadpole and is of the family Ranidae in the Order Anura. They are closely related to toads. The Ranidae are sometimes called the "true frogs" since a few members of other families also have common nam - "Ribbit"
- LionThe Lion Panthera leo is a mammal of the family Felidae. The male lion, who is easily recognized by his mane, may weigh up to 250 kg (550 lb). Females are much smaller, weighing up to only 180 kg (400 lb). In the wild lions live for around 10 14 years, wh - "Roar"
- Humans - "Prattle," "blab", and "brouhaha"
- MouseFor the computer peripheral, see computer mouse. A mouse is a mammal that belongs to one of numerous species of small rodents in the genus Mus and various related genera of the family Muridae. Mus musculus, the common house mouse (or laboratory mouse) is - "Squeak"
- Owl - "Hoo"
- Road Runner - "Beep Beep"
- Pig - " Oink"
- Sheep - "Baa"
A number of animals, especially birds, also get their names from the onomatopoeic link with the calls they make, such as the Cuckoo and the Chiffchaff.
Advertising uses onomatopeoia as a mnemonic so consumers will remember their products:
- Rice Crispies - "Snap, crackle, pop" when you pour on milk
- Alka Seltzer - makes a "plop, plop, fizz, fizz" noise when dunked in water
- Cocoa Puffs - a wacky bird is " cuckoo" for them
The sound of Tennyson's words reinforces the actual words describing a lazy summer's day: The moan of doves in immemorial elms, / And murmuring of innumerable bees.
According to Dick Higgins, "Three basic types of sound poetry from the relative past come to mind immediately: folk varieties, onomatopoetic or mimetic types, and nonsense poetries. The folk roots of sound poetry may be seen in the lyrics of certain folk songs, such as the Horse Songs of the Navajos or in the Mongolian materials collected by the Sven Hedin expedition." (Primary reference: Henning Haslund-Christiansen, "The Music of the Mongols: Eastern Mongolia" 1943:New York, Da Capo Press:1971; secondary reference: "A Taxonomy of Sound Poetry" by Dick Higgins, From "Precisely: Ten Eleven Twelve", 1981).
Onomatopoetic words exist in every language, although they are different in each. For example, in Latin, tuxtax means bam or wack, and was meant to imitate the sound of blows landing. In Ancient Greek, koax was used as the sound of a frog. In Japanese, dokidoki is used to indicate the beating of a heart.
