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Re: restricted semantics language

From:Rick Harrison <rick@...>
Date:Saturday, June 21, 2008, 18:48
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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R A Brown <ray@...>