Animals and onomatopoeia

In message <Pine.3.89.9811201300.C9356-0100000@...>, JOEL
MATTHEW PEARSON <mpearson@...> writes
>On Fri, 20 Nov 1998, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>
>> Has any conlang used onomatopeyics for genera vocabulary?
>
>Tokana has a number of onomatopoetic verbs for animal calls and
>other sounds:
Many Elet Anta animal names are onomatopoeic or are thought
to be by speakers.  Their names are used also for the sounds
they make:

   maral          tiger
   cawru          lion
   orongc         pig
   bua            cow
   le             sheep
   mehen          goat
   ihu            donkey
   brath          horse
   shik           peregrin ("k" is a velar fricative)
   curic          chicken
   wac            duck
   gart           seal
   harak          crow
   tuburubu       turkey
   brarc          frog
   nark           gull
   uri            curlew
   awlu           wolf
   bezen          bee
   simi           mouse

Gorof "dog" is thought to be onomatopoeic and also means
"bark", but is probably connected with grof "bite".  More
exotic animals tend to have names which are loans: shirafa,
cimel, elfas, lepard, chimpan, penggwin.  Drok "dragon"
probably has a celtic origin.  Others are not clear: licar
"cat", cheneca "monkey", mallo "badger", cufar "fox", crisha
"snake", eleved "lizard", boc "wren", spang "starling",
myupaf "rabbit", saysh "hare".  Others are compounds:
manamacawr (nose-horn) "rhinoceros", coyladrok
(river-dragon) "crocodile", lhenggeleved (fear-lizard)
"dinosaur", brantorlu (wide-wing) "eagle".

Several animals end in -ic, a non-productive suffix of
unknown origin:

   clasantic      robin (clasant "red")
   pleninic       wasp (plenin "yellow")
   laytanlinic    nightingale ("night-sing")
   dastic         bird of prey (dast "attack suddenly")
   misfic         amphibian (misif "wet")

Other words which are onomatopoeic or regarded as such are
words like these ("k" = velar fricative):

   awva           howl
   murur          purr
   kek            hiss (of cats, etc)
   bol            bleat, low
   kafa           laugh
   fenef          whisper
   faf            sigh
   umud           mutter, mumble
   thif           whistle
   sayk           scream
   num            groan, moan, grunt
   ngahag         hiccup
   kart           phlegm
   ucak           cough
   brok           vomit
   puraash        burst, explode
   dranch         crash to earth
   dup            thud, thump, plop
   tulp           hammer, bash
   yich           creak, squeak
   taclac         rattle
   clac           break
   rumbo          thunder
   cracs          hail
   zdash          heavy rain
   uhu            hoot

Layuhu "owl" means something like "night-hoot".

And I haven't got a word for "miaow" (Sp?).  Bother.

--
John Fisher   john@drummond.demon.co.uk   johnf@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Elet Anta website: http://www.drummond.demon.co.uk/anta/
Drummond ro cleshfan merec; fanye litoc, inye litoc