Feature GB296: Is there a phonologically or morphosyntactically definable class of ideophones that includes ideophones depicting imagery beyond sound?

Patrons: Jakob Lesage

Description ⇫

Summary

Ideophones are marked words that depict sensory imagery, e.g. glimmer, twiddle, tinkle. In some languages, ideophones may have different morphosyntactic characteristics from other word classes (e.g. they have different morphology, or they have no morphology at all while other classes do; or they may be extremely free when it comes to word order, in comparison to other words). They may also feature sounds that are not present anywhere else in the language. Every language probably has ideophones, but not every language has a very well defined class of ideophones.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if a source mentions ideophone-specific phonological or morphosyntactic characteristics, and gives examples of ideophones indicating imagery beyond sound.
  2. Code 1 if a source mentions ideophones (beyond sound) and you can identify morphosyntactic or phonological properties that do not seem to apply to other word classes (e.g. word order, morphology).
  3. Code 0 if a source mentions ideophones (beyond sound) but classifies them together with another word class morphosyntactically and does not mention specific phonological characteristics.
  4. Code 0 if an otherwise comprehensive description does not mention ideophones.
  5. Code 0 if only ideophones depicting auditory imagery are attested.
  6. Code ? if you have reason to believe that the sources missed ideophones depicting imagery beyond sound or specific properties of ideophones in the language.

Examples

Ewe (ISO 639-3: ewe, Glottolog: ewee1241)

Ideophones in Ewe have (at least) three unusual phonological characteristics (Ameka 1991: 78):

  • They can have short or long vowels without any change in meaning.
  • Tone may be used sound-symbolically, so tone in ideophones is arguably more fluid.
  • Syllables of ideophones may be reversed:
nyadsii - drinyaa ‘tough, hard’
kpɔdzɔɔ - dzɔkpɔɔ ‘fat, thick’
tsaklii - klitsaa ‘rough’
nogoo   - gonoo ‘round’

Ewe is coded 1 for this feature.

Buwal (ISO 639-3: bhs, Glottolog: buwa1243)

In Viljoen’s (2013: 67-70) grammar of Buwal, six phonologically uncommon characteristics of ideophones are discussed:

  1. Changes in pitch, or lack of a clearly associated melody (cf. Ewe), e.g. jāàȁȁ ‘noise of rain’
  2. Long vowels and consonants, which do not occur often elsewhere (cf. Ewe), e.g. fɐ́ːɾɐ́ ‘manner of running slowly’, mbɛ̀ɮːɛ́ ‘manner of staring fixedly’
  3. Exaggerated aspiration, e.g. pʰoe̋hʷ ‘noise of sudden entry or exit’
  4. In other word classes, palatalized vowels only occur with front vowels, but in ideophones, they can also occur with non-front vowels: kə̋tʃɐ̋ kə́tʃɐ́ kə̄tʃɐ̄ kə̀tʃɐ̀ ‘cry of guinea fowl’
  5. In other word classes, rounded vowels are typically found next to labialized velar consonants or labial-velar /w/. In ideophones, they are also found next to other consonants: bőf ‘come out suddenly’, ɐ̀túl ‘manner of smoke ascending’
  6. /ə/ and its allophones do not usually occur in final syllables, but they do in ideophones: bɪm̋ ‘noise of sudden digging’, ɐ̀túl ‘manner of smoke ascending’

One morphosyntactic characteristic of ideophones in Buwal is repetition or reduplication to a greater extent than in other word classes, e.g. ŋɡɐ̄m ŋɡɐ̀m ŋɡɐ̄m ŋɡɐ̀m ‘noise of grinding’.

Buwal is coded 1 for this feature.

Luchazi (ISO 639-3: lch, Glottolog: luch1239)

For Luchazi, Fleisch (2000: 45) states that ideophones feature consonant clusters and sounds that do not occur in other parts of speech. He does not, however, provide examples, but this statement is enough to warrant a 1 for this feature in Grambank.

Bangi (ISO 639-3: bni, Glottolog: bang1354)

Whitehead (1899) discusses a class of sound-symbolic ‘indeclinable adjectives’ in Bangi (in his words: "they may be traced to an onomatopoetic origin", they are "colouring" words" (Whitehead 1899: 18).

These ideophones are grammatically characterized by a lack of noun class agreement and person indexing, which applies to verbs, other adjectives, and nouns. Bangi is coded 1 for this feature.

ca          ‘scattered’
kākatanu    ‘puzzling’
kō-kō       ‘tied up’
tī          ‘intent, still, cool’
zölôlô      ‘whirling’

Chinook (ISO 639-3: cch, Glottolog: chin1286)

Similarly to Whitehead for Bangi, Boas (1911: 627) describes a class of words in Chinook of "onomatopoetic origin" that do not require pronominal indexes.

Chinook is coded 1 for this feature.

Further reading

Dingemanse, Mark. 2011. The meaning and use of ideophones in Siwu. Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen. (Doctoral dissertation.)

References

Ameka, Felix K. 1991. Ewe: its grammatical constructions and illucutionary devices. Cannbera: Australian National University. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Boas, Franz. 1911. Chinook. In Franz Boas (ed.), Handbook of American Indian languages: Volume 1, 559–678. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Fleisch, Axel. 2000. Lucazi grammar. (Grammatische Analysen Afrikanischer Sprachen, 15.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Viljoen, Melanie Helen. 2013. A grammatical description of the Buwal language. Melbourne: LaTrobe University. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Whitehead, John. 1899. Grammar and dictionary of the Bobangi language: as spoken over a part of the Upper Congo, West Central Africa. Farnborough: Gregg Press.


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0 absent 674
1 present 299
? Not known 1164
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment