Onomatopoeic words imitate the sounds they describe, and may have been the first words spoken by humans. Every language has onomatopoeic words, but they vary between languages. Examples include “meow” and “purr,” which have different variations in different languages.
Onomatopoeic words are words that, when pronounced, imitate the sound they describe. The word “boom,” for example, is not only a word for a loud noise, but also mimics the resounding report of an explosion or equally loud noise. Words like “buzz” and “click” are also onomatopoeic words. The word “onomatopoeia” comes from the Greek. In Greek, the word onoma means “name” and the word poieo means “to do” or “do.” Therefore, the word onomatopoeia literally means “the creation of names”.
There are a number of theories as to how the language came about. One theory is based on onomatopoeic words. This theory posits that language, and words in particular, arose from humans trying to imitate the sounds of the world around them. If this is true, then it would mean that the onomatopoeic words we use today are very similar to the very first words spoken by our ancestors.
Many onomatopoeic words describe the sounds that animals make. From an early age we learn that a dog barks, a cat meows, a horse neighs and a lion roars. Interestingly, every language has onomatopoeic words. However, there are many different variations of onomatopoeic words. In some cases, onomatopoeic words are very similar between languages.
Can you imagine which English word the Dutch word miauw refers to? In Hebrew, the same word is miyau. In Finnish, German, Hungarian and Italian, the word is miau. You’ve probably guessed by now that these words are all translations of the English word “meow.” They all seem to simply describe the same noise, just in different spellings. The same does not apply, however, to the onomatopoeic word that describes the noise a cat makes when it is happy. Examples:
Danish: pierre
English: purr
Finnish: hrr
French: purr
German: srr
Hungarian: doromb
Japanese: goro goro
russo: mrrr
While the Danish, English, Finnish, German and Russian versions of this word are similar, there are some variations between them. The French, Hungarian and Japanese versions of “purr”, however, are quite different. Of course, cats all over the world make more or less the same noise when they talk. What makes the difference in these translations, however, is how that noise was interpreted by the speakers of the language. For another interesting example of very different translations of onomatopoeic words, look up the different versions of “woof.”
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
