Craig White's Literature Courses Terms / Themes Onomatopoeia + Phonestheme

Oxford English Dictionary

1.a. The formation of a word from a sound associated with the thing or action being named; the formation of words imitative of sounds.

2. The use of echoic or suggestive language, esp. onomatopes, for rhetorical effect. Occas. in Music: the use of imitative or echoic instrumentation, rhythms, etc

onomatope: A word formed by onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeic joke

Knock-knock.
Who's there?
Boo
Boo who?
Don't cry, I was only joking

Onomatopoeia in classic poetry:

Edgar Allan Poe, "The Bells"

Gwendolyn Brooks, "Cynthia in the Snow"

In the last lines of Sir Alfred Tennyson's poem 'Come Down, O Maid', m and n sounds produce an atmosphere of murmuring insects:

... the moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.

Also Tennyson's Morte D’Arthur:

I heard the ripple washing in the reeds

And the wild water lapping on the crag.

(http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-onomatopoeia-poems.html)

Examples of onomatopoeic words:

achoo, ahem

beep, boom

chirp, click, clink, cock-a-doodle-doo

ding, drip

eek

fizz, flicker, flutter

giggle, growl, gurgle

harrumph, hiccup, hiss, honk, hum

itch

jangle

meow, moo, mumble, murmur

oink, ouch, ow

ping, plop, plunk, poof, pop, purr

quack

rattle, roar, rumble, rustle

screech, sizzle, slap, slurp, sniff, snip, snort

thud, thump, ticktock, tinkle, twang, tweet

ugh

vroom

whack, wham, whisper, woof

yikes

zap, zip, zoom

(examples adapted from http://www.examples-of-onomatopoeia.com/)

compare Phonestheme: A phoneme or group of phonemes having recognizable semantic associations, as a result of appearing in a number of words of similar meaning (Oxford English Dictionary)

For example, in words like glimmer, glitter, and glisten, the initial gl- phonestheme is associated with vision or light. (http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/Phonestheme.htm)

Phoneme 1b. A unit of sound in a language that cannot be analysed into smaller linear units and that can distinguish one word from another (e.g. /p/ and /b/ in English pat, bat).

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