lingthusiasm

Bonus 34: The sounds of sheep, earthquakes, and ice cream - Onomatopoeia

Added 2019-12-06 01:28:22 +0000 UTC

We all know cows go 'moo', sheep go 'baa' and ducks go 'queck'... well medieval English ducks did. Dutch cows go 'boe' /bu/ and Korean sheep go 음매 (eum-mae). What is it about sounds that make a sheep sound like a sheep, and how can the name of an ice cream flavour make it sound more delicious?

In this bonus episode of Lingthusiasm, Lauren tests Gretchen on Syuba onomatopoeia, Gretchen quizzes Lauren about good names for different products as we explore ideophones, sound symbolism and their role in understanding the world.

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

New Lingthusiasm merch!
Onomatopoeia (Wikipedia)
Ideophones (Wikipedia)
Syuba dictionary
Queck (tweet)
Bleat (Etymonline)
Cross-linguistic onomatopoeias (Wikipedia)
3 Misconceptions about Ideophones (Mark Dingemanse)
Ice Cream and Crackers
Detal, Dutal and marketing with sounds
Lingthusiasm Episode 21: What words sound spiky across languages? Interview with Suzy Styles

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page.

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All ThingsLinguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.