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Re: OT: onomatopoiesis

From:Wade, Guy <guy.wade@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 20, 2001, 12:27
One of my earliest and favorite words is qorgq (rock), which sounds to me
like a rock falling.  From this I made qorgotaeni (lit. rock-voices),
echoes.

BTW, FYI, FWIW, I've racked my brain and can't figure out what IIRC means.
Help!

Guy

> -----Original Message----- > From: Christophe Grandsire [mailto:christophe.grandsire@FREE.FR] > Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 3:20 AM > To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU > Subject: Re: onomatopoiesis > > > En réponse à Aidan Grey <frterminus@...>: > > > Has anyone ever created a word, or modified it, > > because of what it should sound like > > onomatopoietically? An example from Aelya: > > > > Q. quoro- 'choke' should become por, according to > > the rules, but instead became chor, because the velar > > ch /x/ sounds more like a choking sound. > > > > I have no example in a conlang, but in French, there is the > word "coucou" (a > kind of bird) derived from Latin *cuculus IIRC (absolutely > not sure about this > one though). If the sound changes had worked correctly on > this one, it should > have given "cocu" (no star, because this word exists. it's a > curse word > referring to a person who has been cheated on. It does derive > from the name of > the bird and refers to the behaviour of the female who lays > her eggs in other > birds' nests). But because of the onomatopoeic quality of the > name, it has been > remade as "coucou" to refer to the bird, while "cocu" stayed > to be used for > humans. > > Christophe. > > http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr >

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daniel andreasson <daniel.andreasson@...>