Questions tagged [sound-symbolism]
For questions about the relation between sounds and meaning.
19 questions
0
votes
2
answers
99
views
Vocalization of a totally unknown language
(If this is not the right place to ask this question, please direct me elsewhere. I do not even know how to tag this question.)
There are examples of experts decoding or partly decoding ancient ...
- 473
-1
votes
1
answer
314
views
What this difference between phonemic and phonetic transcriptions? [duplicate]
Consider the Wikipedia article for phoneme, this is in Norwegian but one can easily translate, I will use this example for asking the question.
Fonemer er vanligvis plassert mellom skråstreker i ...
- 137
-1
votes
2
answers
194
views
Is 'x' the written form for the speech sound ɛks in this sentence?
Consider the following spoken sentence written in phonetic transcription:
lɛt ɛks dɪˈnəʊt ən ˈɛlɪmənt ɒv ðə sɛt ------------1
(I don't know how to do phonetic transcriptions, I used a website for ...
- 123
0
votes
2
answers
105
views
Does a sound denote a thing and a word denote that sound or a word denote a thing a sound denote that word?
Recently, I picked up a book on mathematics that highlighted the importance of distinguishing between a word and what it represents. Now, if only words and things that they denote were involved in ...
- 123
3
votes
0
answers
116
views
Are there many "lexical universals" like mama/papa - based on similar re-creation?
Reading the article "Where do mama/papa words come from?" by Larry Trask, linked in this answer (itself based on Roman Jakobson's 1959 article ‘Why “mama” and “papa”?’) we see that a ...
- 780
1
vote
0
answers
129
views
Do older adults perceive words in different ways than young adults?
Do you agree that older adults perceive words differently from young adults, and learn more innuendos and double meanings?
I read a science article that stated that adults continue to learn words and ...
- 215
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What is the difference between phone (speech sound) and a sound?
I am not sure if I am asking a question in the right site. I don't know know if I am even asking a biological, linguistic or physics question. But I recently started learning about language and its ...
- 143
5
votes
0
answers
152
views
Etymology of initial "g-" in Sicilian "giurana" (frog)
Most Romance words for "frog" derive from Latin rana (e.g. es. rana, it. rana, pt. rã. See also va. renoc ("toad")).
However, an unexpected initial g- appears in the cognates of several Gallo-:
fr. ...
- 3,132
3
votes
3
answers
417
views
If any of these stranger human voice sounds have IPA annotations
Wondering if the following sounds have written transcriptions / annotations in IPA or any other system:
Snooring sound (breathing in, "hoooonk" is a trill of some sort, then the breathing out "shoo" ...
- 4,438
-2
votes
1
answer
108
views
The letter V in German, its sounds and visual symbolism [closed]
The word Fotze (cunt) has the irregular spelling Votze, which is usually explained as a reference to the denotated part. But comparing Vater (father), I don't know any reason why hat wouldn't be Fater....
- 1,391
10
votes
3
answers
2k
views
How seriously do modern linguists take the idea of phonesthemes?
When we English speakers say phrases like "King Kong" and "delicate daffodil," some of us can't help but think that the "k" sound is rough-and-tumble and the "d" sound is mild-mannered. Apparently ...
- 8,780
1
vote
0
answers
62
views
Name of the theory of lexical semantics that distinguishes consonants by the values "up" and "down"?
I'm reading "Cognitive interpretation of Czech verse" by Pavel Jiráček about a way to analyze poetry by reading how the consonants, syllables and words conotate "up" and "down".
What is the best ...
- 597
6
votes
2
answers
845
views
Ablaut reduplication: why high vowel to low vowel?
Just read a piece describing ablaut reduplication, where the first vowel is almost always a high vowel and the reduplicated ablaut variant of the vowel is a low vowel.
Examples: chit-chat, ding-dong, ...
- 81
2
votes
0
answers
1k
views
What exactly does the ding-dong theory of the origin of language state, according to Max Müller?
Max Müller is mentioned as one of the pioneers of the study of the origins of language, as he created a typology for the earlier origin of language theories based on the channel they draw the ...
- 597
0
votes
2
answers
423
views
Could the proto-human language still play a role in the interlingual communication?
I've read several studies about sound symbolism and I'm still not sure whether I got an insight into the topic. I know that today's view of most of the linguists is skeptical towards sound symbolism ...
- 597
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What is motivatedness?
I've just encountered this term in the context of a study about sound symbolism, I suppose it is a factor that might play role in how are the new words being formed. What is meant by this factor?
- 597
1
vote
0
answers
67
views
Is there a term for the class of words that are not onomatopoeia / sound symbolic
I could call them non-sound-symbolic, but this isn't quite true since you could argue that all words have some degree of sound symbolism. Is there a term that determines the set of words that excludes ...
- 1,534
-1
votes
1
answer
2k
views
The sound "ka" or "cha" or "kha" means what ? e.g Khaalesi,Khan,Chan,Kaan
Especially in east geography (middle east, middle asia, asia) the words starting with Kha, ka, cha means like a leader or a king or a lord.
Khaalesi (game of thrones character who living in east of ...
- 107
4
votes
2
answers
491
views
Are there any languages besides Korean where vowel harmony is used semantically?
Korean has an interesting feature, in that mimetic words and colours can be altered by changing their vowels from one vowel harmony grouping to the other.
The two groupings are called yin vowels and ...
- 1,495