Re: restricted semantics language
| From: | Rick Harrison <rick@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, June 21, 2008, 18:48 |
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On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:45:40 -0400, li_sasxsek@NUTTER.NET wrote:
>> phonosemantics sounds interesting. does this mean that you invent a
>> phonosemantical system on your own from scratch or are there any sources
>> from other languages that you refer to?
>What I'm attempting is something based on known universals. Unfortunately I haven't
found much on the subject
Ken Frisco, who wrote the article on onomatopoeia for Invented Languages magazine, has
lent me his copy of _The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese_ by Shoko Hamano. I
highly recommend this book to anyone seeking info on phonosemantics in languages
other than English. It's fascinating. I don't have time to prepare a proper summary but for
example the author claims that
/t/ (as the second consonant in a CVCV mimetic adverb) appears in contexts where hitting
is involved... variations such as 'coming into close contact' and 'complete agreement'
/r/ indicates rolling...
/p/ or /b/ indicates 'breaking' 'submergence' or 'explosive event'
/w/ indicates 'softness' 'faintness' 'haziness'
and so forth for ideophones of all shapes and sizes.
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