Re: OT: onomatopoiesis
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, June 20, 2001, 8:20 |
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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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