Onamonapeias

topic posted Tue, March 20, 2007 - 1:28 AM by  Insect Healing
Here are a few of the words in Quechua to symbolize sound. The spellings are from a workbook by Tod Swanson that we used in our class.

Cus, Cus: The sound of an opossum, dog, or jaguar killing its prey with its teeth.

Murus, murus: The sound of an animal eating crunchy, raw fruit. Like a human eating an apple or cherry.

Chaj, chaj: The sound of chewing cooked food. (The j is kind of a gutteral Germanic thing like a very throaty "k").

Tuluj, tuluj: Glug, glug (The sound of drinking).

Kwataj, kwataj: Glug, glug (The sound of drinking as well).

Puluj, puluj: The sound of something boiling.

Tsun: The sound of getting soaked. It's true, it is.

Tau, tau: The sound of something being pounded.

Putun, putun: The sound of falling fruit.

Tsants: The sound of something slipping from one's grasp.

Lin, lin: The sound of something slippery sliding.

Dzar, dzar: The sound of sawing.

Palau, palau: The sound of someone cutting soft second growth vegetation.

Chings, chings: The sound of someone cutting harder wood.

Guiu, guiu: The sound of someone slicing something soft with a knife.

Dulun: The sound thunder makes.

Sau: The sound of dumping out a large bucket of water.

Tsaras, tsaras: The sound of rustling leaves or paper, like a little mouse in dry leaves. Tsaras tsaras. I really like this one.
posted by:
Insect Healing
Portland
  • Re: Onamonapeias

    Tue, March 20, 2007 - 8:35 AM
    There is a whole book, Sounds Like Life by Janis B. Nuckolls, written about onomatopoeias and sound symbolism in the Pastaza dialect of Ecuador. These forms only occur in Amazonian dialects, to my knowledge; AFAIK, they are unknown in highland dialects.
    • Re: Onamonapeias

      Fri, December 21, 2007 - 9:47 PM
      Hi from Janis Nuckolls. I'll be in Ecuador again in the summer of 2008. If interested in sound symbolism, do drop me a line.

      Janis B. Nuckolls
      Brigham Young University
      • Re: Onamonapeias

        Mon, December 24, 2007 - 6:25 PM
        Well, cool to have you here! My professor (and academic advisor in linguistics) was interested in this topic and said he knew you. Tucker Childs, you know him?