In philological science, there are many words derived from Greek and Latin roots, the meaning of which is far from transparent and often remains a mystery to a simple layman who is not dedicated to the secrets of linguistics. One of such mysterious concepts is onomatopoeia.
What is an onomatopoeia?
Onomatopoeia is, as the poetic dictionary of the Russian Soviet literary critic, poet theorist, poet Alexander Pavlovich Kvyatkovsky, published for the first time in 1966, a term that means a word formed from onomatopoeia that arose on the basis of phonetic assimilation by non-speech sound complexes, claims.
Origin of the term
The term comes from the ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιΐα (Latin transcription: onomatopoeia ), which has the meaning of "creation of words." In ancient Greek, the word "onomatopoeia" was a complex formation from the genitive case of the noun ὄνομα, meaning "name", and the verb ποιέω, meaning "I do," "I create." Thus, literally, the term onomatopoeia is the creation of names. In this case, names are understood not as morphological names themselves, but as all classes of independent parts of speech, which serve to describe, name, name objects of reality, their signs and the actions they perform.
The role of onomatopoeia in the formation of new words
Onomatopoeia is, according to most philologists, one of the main ways of forming new words.
It is also considered the oldest and most productive way of word formation at the first stage of the appearance of human speech and consciousness. Even in ancient Greece, it was suggested that speech itself could be born out of imitation of the sounds of the world. The theory that onomatopoeia is a source of the appearance and development of human speech is relevant among a number of philologists at the present time.
The formation of a new word occurs on the basis of phonetic assimilation to a particular sound phenomenon both in animate and inanimate nature, and in the activity of the word-creator himself - man.
Onomatopopes, as the words formed by onomatopoeia are called, are always motivated, the sounds repeated in them always reproduce the sound of the world heard by a person.
That is why they are interesting to poets and writers who actively use them or create an onomatopoeic effect due to any sounds. This technique is called sound recording. It distinguishes several tricks, of which the most common are alliteration (repetition of consonants) and assonance (repetition of vowels).
Examples of onomatopoeia
Examples of onomatopoeic vocabulary include such words of the Russian language as “meow”, “croak”, “buzz”, “crow”, “rattle”. It should be noted that all words with an onomatopoeic root, that is, nouns formed from the given verbs ("meowing", "croaking", "buzzing", "crowing", "rattling") will also serve as examples of onomatopoeic vocabulary. Here are a few more examples: the verbs "bark", "cluck", "croak", the onomatopoeic words "kar", "uh-go", "bam", "grunt", nouns "karkusha", "piggy", " mallard "," loon "," tree frog "," purr "- this is an onomatopoeia.
Onomatopathic vocabulary differs in different languages, and only partly these differences can be explained by differences in phonological systems of languages. It is worth saying that a different mentality, a different way of thinking, different features of sound reproduction form various audible sounds that form the basis of onomatopes.
A large number of onomatopoeic vocabulary exists in the Japanese language, where even there are special words that belong to closed groups describing the shades of the degree and intensity of the action or symptom. For example, to describe the strong wind, the Japanese use the onomatopoeia "huyu-huyu", reminiscent of them, apparently, the howl of his outbursts. But the Japanese onomatopoeia to describe the light breeze, pleasant and tender, sounds like this: "soy-soy." This word can also be said about the breeze blowing from the coast of the sea or ocean.