Ideophones are a type of words used by speakers to convey a vivid impression of a certain sensation or sensory perception, e. g. smell, color, shape, sound, action, or movement. Ideophones are attested in all languages of the world, however, languages differ in the extent to which they make use of them. Because of this, some linguists do not think it is useful to talk about a universal 'class' of ideophones, and maintain that the concept makes sense only within the context of an individual language. In this narrow sense, the validity of the class of ideophones is rarely disputed.

The word class of ideophones is often called phonosemantic to indicate that it is not a grammatical word class in the traditional sense of the word (like 'verb' or 'noun'), but rather a grouping based on form and meaning. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs.

In the discipline of Linguistics, ideophones have long been overlooked or treated as mysterious words. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Voeltz and Kilian-Hatz (2001:2) suggest this might be because ideophones often transcend traditional categorizational boundaries in languages, thus providing a problem to the generally orderly divided grammatical classes.

Characteristics

An oft-cited definition of the notion of ideophone is the one by Doke 1935:118:

Ideophone

‘A vivid representation of an idea in sound. A word, often onomatopoeic, which describes a predicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, colour, sound, smell, action, state or intensity. ’

Ideophones convey aspects of events that can be experienced sensorially. Reduplication figures quite prominently in ideophones, often bringing in a sense of repetition or plurality. Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated A well known instance of ideophones are onomatopoeic words, i. Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα is a Word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing e. , words imitating the sound (of the event) they refer to. Some ideophones may be derived from onomatopoeic notions. A case in point is the English ideophonic verb to tinkle, which is likely to be derived from an imitation of a brief metallic sound.

It is maintained by some (e. g. Kilian-Hatz 2001:157, Kock 1985) that ideophones denote a complete utterance and as such have a sentence-like character. However, reports from other languages (Cantonese, Yoruba, Hausa, Ewe, to name a few) challenge this statement, showing instead that ideophones can be fully integrated into sentences, just like ordinary verbs and nouns. This difference of opinion is attributable to the fact that languages vary in the manner they make use of ideophones.

Languages also differ in the context in which ideophones are used. In some languages, ideophones are primarily used in spoken language (e. g. narrative contexts) and are rarely encountered in written language. A narrative or story is a construct created in a suitable format (written spoken poetry prose images song Theater, or Dance) that describes a sequence of In other languages (e. g. Ewe, Japanese), ideophones can be freely used in all registers. Ewe (native name Ɛ̀ʋɛ̀gbè ὲβὲg͡bè is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately five is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities In Linguistics, a register is a subset of a Language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting In general, however, ideophones tend to occur more extensively in spoken language because of their expressive or dramaturgic function.

Ideophones are restricted to certain grammatical classes in some languages (e. g. Welayta, Yir-Yiront, Finnish). Yir-Yoront (several other names see below is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken in coastal southwestern Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside In others, ideophones pervade many different word classes and syntactic constructions (e. g. Mundang, Ewe, Siwu, Sotho). Ewe (native name Ɛ̀ʋɛ̀gbè ὲβὲg͡bè is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately five Siwu is a Niger-Congo language spoken in the mountainous central part of the Volta Region of Ghana. History Should include probable history of the language what form of Bantu it is most closely derived from (the coolest forms! dates of movement of major groups A common feature across languages, especially in narrative contexts, is the possibility of introducing ideophones via a verbum dicendi, for example:

• É-ƒú así nu bé bóbóbó   (3SG-strike hand mouth like IDEOPHONE)   ‘S/He raised an alarm and went “bóbóbó”. A verbum dicendi is a Word that expresses speech or introduces a Quotation, such as "say" "utter" "ask" or "mumble" ’ (Ewe, adapted from Ameka 2001). Ewe (native name Ɛ̀ʋɛ̀gbè ὲβὲg͡bè is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately five

Examples

Cantonese (romanizations given in Jyutping)

• 嗱(laa4) 嗱(laa2) 聲(seng1) — quickly (as in 嗱(laa4) 嗱(laa2) 聲(seng1) 做(zou6), literally meaning "la la sound do" but actually meaning "do [it] quickly")

English

• bling-bling — glitter, sparkle -> richness, glamour
• hippetyhop — ideophonic adverb of manner (as in "The rabbit goes hippetyhop")
• gobble — to devour in greedy gulps

Ewe

• gbadzaa — flat, spreading out over a wide area

Finnish

• Various expressive loans, e. In Linguistics, romanization (or latinization, also spelled romanisation or latinisation) is the representation of a Word or Jyutping (sometimes spelled Jyutpin) is a Romanization system for Standard Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong (LSHK English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Bling-bling (or simply bling) is a Slang term in Hip hop culture referring to flashy or elaborate Jewelry and ornamented Ewe (native name Ɛ̀ʋɛ̀gbè ὲβὲg͡bè is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by approximately five Finnish ( or suomen kieli) is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland (92% As of 2006) and by ethnic Finns outside An expressive loan is a Loanword incorporated into the expressive system of the borrowing language making it resemble native words or Onomatopoeia. g. tytinä< Russian stúden "aspic", but also symbolises "wobblyness"
• Onomatopoetic frequentative and momentane verbs, e. In Grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action In Finnish grammar, the momentane is a Verb aspect indicating that an occurrence is sudden and short-lived g. momentane-frequentative lätsähdellä "to splat over a larger area, suddenly and repeatedly", from onomatopoeia läts "splat".

Japanese

• doki doki — heartbeat -> excitement
• kira kira — glitter
• shiin — silence

Vietnamese

• loảng xoảng — sound of glass breaking to pieces or metallic objects falling to the ground
• hớt hơ hớt hải (also hớt ha hớt hải) — hard gasps -> in extreme hurry, in panic, panic-stricken
• lục đục — the sound of hard, blunt (and likely wooden) objects hitting against each other -> disagreements and conflicts inside a group or an organisation

Yoruba

• fẹrẹgẹdẹ — big and wide
• róbótó — little and round (object)
• gbẹ̀m — round and big
• gbàyàù — open and loose

Navajo

• dil dil — sound of several people walking
• ts'os ts'os — sound of sucking or kissing
• k'az k'az — sound of shearing sheep

Hindi/Urdu

• Chamak chamk — sparkles or glitter

See also

• Sound symbolism (Phonosemantics)
• Primal sounds
• Synesthesia
• Reduplication
• Onomatopoeia
• Japanese sound symbolism

References

• Ameka, Felix Kofi (2001) ‘Ideophones and the adjective class in Ewe’. is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) Yoruba (native name èdè Yorùbá, 'the Yoruba language' is a Dialect continuum of West Africa with over 25 million speakers Navajo or Navaho ( native name: Diné bizaad) is an Athabaskan language (of Na-Dené stock spoken in the southwest United States by Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी ہندوستانی Hindustānī, hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː also known as " Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering Sound symbolism or phonosemantics is a branch of Linguistics and refers to the idea that vocal sounds have meaning Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae or synaesthesiae)—from the Ancient Greek (syn meaning "with" Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated Onomatopoeia (also spelled onomatopœia, from Greek: ονοματοποιΐα is a Word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing This article describes sound symbolic or mimetic words in the Japanese language. In Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001, 25-48.
• Awoyale, Yiowola (1989) ‘Reduplication and the status of ideophones in Yoruba. Journal of West African Languages 19, 1, 15-34.
• Bodomo, Adams. A corpus of Cantonese Ideophones. Online publication (PDF).
• Childs, G. Tucker (1994) ‘African Ideophones’. Hinton et al (eds. ) Sound Symbolism, 178-204. Cambridge: CUP.
• Doke, C. M. (1935) Bantu linguistic terminology. London: Longmans, Green.
• Kilian-Hatz (2001) ‘Universality and diversity’. In Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001, 155-164.
• Kock, I (1985) ‘The speech act theory: A preliminary investigation’. In South African Journal of African Languages, 5, 49-53.
• Voeltz, F. K. Erhard & Kilian-Hatz, Christa (eds. ) (2001). Ideophones. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.