![]() ![]() ![]() My favorite actually is how Thai speakers will often type “55555” in online conversations to indicate laughter because the number five is pronounced “ha” in their language. That’s a bit different than woof and ribbit, isn’t it?Įven the onomatopoeia for laughter can be different depending on your language as well, though most do use something similar to the “hahaha” we’re familiar with in English. In Japanese, the sound for dogs is “wan wan” and frogs make a “kero kero” noise. We just interpret them differently around the world.Ī Spanish speaker might describe a cat noise as “miau.” They might say a baby bird goes “pio-pio” instead of “cheep cheep.” You’d think this would be universal to all languages, but it’s actually different! Well, technically, the animals are all making the same sounds. ![]() Cows say moo, ducks say quack quack, cats say meow, and dogs go woof woof, right? We all have probably sang “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” at some point in our lives. One aspect of onomatopoeia that many people are familiar with is animal sounds. I suppose it took on the meaning because advertising jingles are meant to catch our attention, just like hearing the sound of jingle bells or jingling coins would also make us pause for a moment to listen. But “jingle” also refers to a catchy short song or line used in advertising. So that’s literally like the jingling of bells (most often heard at Christmas, of course) and the jingling of coins (most often heard in your pockets or purses, of course). ![]() So you could say “there’s a lot of buzz about that upcoming movie based on that popular book series” and no one is thinking about bees doing the buzzing, right? People are the ones buzzing by talking about the movie.Īnother example is “jingle” which originally was simply the high-pitched sound of metals hitting against each other. But because the English language is always growing and changing, “buzz” has gained other meanings as well, such as “speculative or excited talk or attention relating, especially to a new or forthcoming product or event.” “Buzz,” for example, is a word to describe the noise a bee or other insects make. To me, the most fascinating parts of the podcast were when they discussed onomatopoeia words that have taken on different meanings overtime. Merriam-Webster’s “Word Matters” podcast had an episode devoted to discussing onomatopoeia. Other things named with onomatopoeia include the movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (named after the car in the film which makes funny noises) Snap, Crackle, and Pop (the cereal mascots named after the sounds Rice Krispies make) and Wham! (the music group). And if you play guitar, you probably know that the wah-wah pedal used for effects is basically just a description of the sound produced when you use it. Have you ever thought about how the flip-flops you wear are named after the sound they make while you’re walking? What about the sound of a Bobwhite bird you hear in the evening? The name comes from a description of their birdcall. Sometimes things are named after the onomatopoeia sounds they produce. A few examples include human vocal sounds (like achoo, cough, hiccup, slurp) and sounds made by devices and other items (beep, clink, splash, vroom, zap). Wikipedia has a nice compiled list by category. After all, English has a lot of onomatopoeia words! ![]()
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