Last week Grammar Grater Luke Taylor headed out to the Minnesota State Fair to record podcasts... this week to discuss a word that is fun to say "and even more fun to spell".... onomatopoeia. From their discussion:
This week, producer Brett Baldwin and I travelled to the Minnesota State Fair to talk about a literary device and a way of forming words called onomatopoeia.
Fowler’s Modern English Usage says that onomatopoeia refers to the formation of names or words from sounds that resemble those associated with the object or action to be named, or that seem suggestive of its qualities.
Think of the word whisper; it’s a word that sounds very much like the action it describes.
Taylor and Baldwin recorded fairgoers of all ages making animal sounds - a classic onomatopoeia. It is quite funny and charming*, and made me wonder about other people's favorites.
What is your favorite onomatopoeia? Is it odd that some onomatopoeias that are "animal sounds" are different in different languages?
This is an open discussion, so you're welcome to link to your related Gather articles or other online resources. Your comments & articles may be quoted on MPR's Your Voice or elsewhere on mpr.org.
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Julia Schrenkler
Interactive Producer
Minnesota Public Radio
American Public Media
Objects in Mirror
*Disclaimer: As a member of the Grammatis Personae Players™ I'm displaying more than a bit of bias.
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Comments: 24
I love the word Q U A C K, naturally. But I am bilingual so I meow, too.
Just call me a cuckoo bird.
:-)
We ended up having quite a dynamic discussion about the meaning of onomatopoeia. For those curious folks, take a look.
My favorite sound-word? How about whippoorwill or chickadee?
And now for an onomatopoeia joke:
Knock, knock
Who's there?
Boo
Boo Who?
Don't cry, it's only a joke.
Hey, wait a minute on that photo - what? Come clean. Hello, I'm in the picture!
You made me look it up and all I think of today is Beep Beep
Or the sound of silence.
If you really want to know, the etymologist that I worked with in the same cube for a couple of years who taught me about the tribes in Europe and the intermixing of those folk probably taught me more so now I still like to understand words and why they are there in language as well as their meaning and how to spell them.
For example Onomatopoeia is ancient Greek not Latin
Onomatopoeia is composed from the Greek words onoma, "name," and poiein, "to make." [ibid.] The word’s adoption from Greek immediately helps explain its odd sound and appearance: onomatopoeia is a technical term. Many technical terms are loaned to English from Greek; often the terms have their origins in ancient Greek literature. That’s the case with onomatopoeia; it’s a term from the study of rhetoric.
Yes, I just listened to a podcast of The Raven found at my link above in the list of examples.
Thanks!
Clever and effective response, Marc!
susurrate or susurration
Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn,
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.