> -----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
>