Editing Ideophone

{{distinguish|text=[[idiophone]], a class of musical instruments}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}
{{Short description|Words evoking ideas of specific sounds or other sensations}}
[[File:Jaan! in Hakui.jpg|thumb|A sculpture demonstrating an example of Japanese sound symbolism, "''jaan!''" ({{lang|ja|ジャーン}})]]
An '''ideophone''' (also known as a '''mimetic''' or '''expressive''') is a member of the [[word class]] of [[word]]s that depict sensory imagery or sensations,<ref name=dingemanse23>{{cite book 
|last1=Dingemanse |first1=Mark 
|editor-last=van Lier |editor-first=Eva
|title=Oxford Handbook of Word Classes 
|date=2023
|publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford
|isbn= 9780191887185 |pages=466-476 
|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198852889.013.15
|chapter=Ideophones
}}</ref> evoking ideas of action, sound, movement, color, or shape. The class of ideophones is the least common [[syntactic category]] cross-linguistically; it occurs mostly in African, Australian, and [[Amerindian languages]], and sporadically elsewhere.  Ideophones resemble [[interjection]]s but are different owing to their special [[Phonetics|phonetic]] or [[Derivational morpheme|derivational]] characteristics, and based on their syntactic function within the sentence. They may include sounds that deviate from the language's phonological system, [[Imitation|imitating]]—often in a repetitive manner—sounds of movement, animal noises, bodily sounds, noises made by tools or machines, and the like.<ref name="Sasse">{{cite book |last=Sasse |first=Hans-Jürgen |title=Syntax--Theory and Analysis: An International Handbook |date=2015 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110202762 |editor-last=Kiss and Alexiadou |pages=158–217 |chapter=Syntactic categories and subcategories}}</ref>

It is globally the only known word class that does not appear in [[English language|English]]. While English does have ideophonic or onomatopoetic expressions, it does not contain a proper class of ideophones because any English onomatopoeic word can be included in one of the classical categories. For example, ''la-di-da'' functions as an adjective while others, such as ''zigzag'', may function as a verb, adverb or adjective, depending on the clausal context. In the sentence "The rabbit zigzag'''ged''' across the meadow", the verb zigzag takes the past ''-ed'' verb ending. In contrast, the reconstructed example *"The rabbit ''zigzag zigzag'' across the meadow" emulates an ideophone but is not [[idiom (language structure)|idiomatic]] to English.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/27594/how-do-ideophones-and-onomatopoeia-work-in-english |title=Linguistics. How do ideophones and onomatopoeia work in English? |last= |first= |date= |website=linguistics.stackexchange.com |publisher= |access-date=7 October 2022 |quote=}}</ref>

Dictionaries of languages like Japanese, Korean, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu list thousands of ideophones.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_gakui/D1004724|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140104105027/http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_gakui/D1004724|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 4, 2014|title=A Grammar of Sound-Symbolic Words in Japanese: Theoretical Approaches to Iconic and Lexical Properties of Japanese Mimetics|last=Akita|first=Kimi|publisher=Kobe University|year=2009}}</ref> Sometimes ideophones are called ''phonosemantic'' to indicate that it is not a grammatical word class in the traditional sense of the word (like [[verb]] or [[noun]]), but rather a lexical class based on the special relationship between form and meaning exhibited by ideophones. In the discipline of [[linguistics]], ideophones have sometimes been overlooked or treated as a subgroup of interjections.<ref name="Sasse2">{{cite book |last=Sasse |first=Hans-Jürgen |title=Syntax--Theory and Analysis: An International Handbook |date=2015 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110202762 |editor-last=Kiss and Alexiadou |pages=158–217 |chapter=Syntactic categories and subcategories}}</ref>

==Characteristics==

The word ideophone was coined in 1935 by [[Clement Martyn Doke]], who defined it in his ''Bantu Linguistic Terminology'' as follows.<ref name=":1">Doke 1935 as cited in Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001</ref>
{{quote|A vivid representation of an idea in sound. A word, often onomatopoeic, which describes a predicate, qualificative or adverb in respect to manner, color, sound, smell, action, state or intensity.}}

Ideophones evoke sensory events. A well known instance of ideophones are [[onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] words—words that imitate the sound (of the event) they refer to. Some ideophones may be derived from onomatopoeic notions. In many languages, however, ideophones do not solely represent sound.<ref name=":1" /> For instance, in [[Gbaya languages|Gbaya]], ''kpuk '''a rap on the door' may be onomatopoeic, but other ideophones depict motion and visual scenes: ''loɓoto-loɓoto'' 'large animals plodding through mud', ''kiláŋ-kiláŋ'' 'in a zigzagging motion', ''pɛɗɛŋ-pɛɗɛŋ'' 'razor sharp'.<ref name=":2" />

Ideophones are often characterized as [[Iconicity|iconic]] or [[Sound symbolism|sound-symbolic]] words, meaning that there can be a resemblance between their form and their meaning. For instance, in West-African languages, voiced consonants and low tone in ideophones are often connected to largeness and heaviness, whereas voiceless consonants and high tones tend to relate to smallness and lightness.<ref>Westermann 1927</ref> [[Reduplication]] figures quite prominently in ideophones, often conveying a sense of repetition or plurality present in the evoked event.<ref>Watson in Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001</ref> The iconicity of ideophones is shown by the fact that people can guess the meanings of ideophones from various languages at a level above chance.<ref>Iwasaki et al. 2007, Dingemanse et al. 2015</ref> However, the form of ideophones does not completely relate to their meaning; as conventionalized words, they contain arbitrary, language-specific phonemes just like other parts of the vocabulary.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

===Grammar===
The grammatical function of ideophones varies by language. In some languages (e.g. [[Welayta language|Welayta]], [[Yir-Yoront language|Yir-Yiront]], [[Semai language|Semai]], [[Korean language|Korean]]), they form a separate word class, while in others, they occur across a number of different word classes (e.g. [[Mundang]], [[Ewe language|Ewe]], [[Sotho language|Sotho]], [[Hausa language|Hausa]]).<ref>Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001</ref>

Despite this diversity, ideophones show a number of robust regularities across languages. One is that they are often marked in the same way as quoted speech and demonstrations.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Samarin|first=William J.|year=1971|title=Survey of Bantu ideophones|journal=African Language Studies|volume=12|pages=130–168}}</ref> Sometimes ideophones can form a complete utterance on their own, as in English "ta-da!" or Japanese {{Nihongo||ジャーン|jaan|ta-da}}.<ref name=":0">Diffloth 1972</ref> However, in such cases the word ideophone is used as a synonym to interjection. Proper ideophones may occur within utterances, depicting a scene described by other elements of the utterance, as in Japanese ''Taro wa <u>sutasuta to</u> haya-aruki o shita'' "Taro walked hurriedly' (literally 'Taro did haste-walk ''sutasuta''<nowiki/>').<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kita|first=Sotaro|year=1997|title=Two-dimensional semantic analysis of Japanese mimetics|url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/106489/9/WRAP-two-dimensional-semantic-analysis-Japanese-mimetics-Kita-2018.pdf|journal=Linguistics|volume=35|issue=2|pages=379–415|doi=10.1515/ling.1997.35.2.379|s2cid=144380452 }}</ref> Ideophones are more like illustrations ''of'' events than responses ''to'' events. An ideophone like Gbaya ''kiláŋ-kiláŋ'' 'in a zigzagging motion' displays a certain resemblance to the event (for instance, its irregular vowels and tones depicting the irregularity of the motion).{{cn|date=January 2025}}

===Registers===
Languages may differ in the context in which ideophones are used. In some languages, ideophones are primarily used in spoken language (e.g. [[narrative]] contexts) and are rarely encountered in written language.<ref name=":2">Noss in Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001</ref> In other languages (e.g. [[Ewe language|Ewe]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]]), ideophones can be freely used in all [[Register (sociolinguistics)|registers]]. In general, however, ideophones tend to occur more extensively in spoken language because of their expressive or dramaturgic function.<ref name="ReferenceA">Kunene in Voeltz & Kilian-Hatz 2001</ref>

==Examples==
{{No citations section|date=April 2025}}

===[[Japanese language|Japanese]]===
{{main|Japanese sound symbolism}}
The Japanese language has thousands of ideophones, often called ''mimetics''. The constructions are quite metrical 2-2, or 3-3, where [[Mora (linguistics)|morae]] play a role in the symmetry. The first consonant of the second word of the reduplication [[rendaku|may become voiced]] if phonological conditions allow. Japanese ideophones are used extensively in daily conversations as well as in the written language.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
* ''doki doki'' ({{lang|ja|ドキドキ}}) – heart-pounding
* ''kira kira'' ({{lang|ja|キラキラ}}) – glittery
* ''shiin'' ({{lang|ja|シーン}}) – silence
* ''niko niko'' ({{lang|ja|ニコニコ}}) – smile
* ''jii'' ({{lang|ja|じー}}) – stare
* ''run run'' ({{lang|ja|ルンルン}}) – cheerful

===[[Tamil language|Tamil]]===
The Tamil language uses many ideophones, both in spoken (colloquial) and in formal usage. Ideophones are called irattaik kilavi (இரட்டைக் கிளவி) in Tamil grammar.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
* ''sora sora'' ({{lang|ta|சொறசொற}}) – rough (the sound produced when rubbing back and forth on a rough surface)
* ''vazha-vazha'' ({{lang|ta|வழவழ}}) – smooth, slippery
* ''mozhu-mozhu'' ({{lang|ta|மொழுமொழு}}) – smooth (surface)
* ''kozhu-kozhu'' ({{lang|ta|கொழுகொழு}}) – plump
* ''kozha-kozha'' ({{lang|ta|கொழகொழ}}) – slimy, gooey
* ''busu-busu'' ({{lang|ta|புசுபுசு}}) – soft and bushy
* ''kaNa-kaNa'' ({{lang|ta|கணகண}}) - warm, hot
* ''giDu-giDu'' ({{lang|ta|கிடுகிடு}}) – quickly, fast
* ''Tak-Tak'' ({{lang|ta|டக்டக்}}) - quickly, rapidly
* ''maDa-maDa'' ({{lang|ta|மடமட}}) – quickly, fast
* ''masa-masa'' ({{lang|ta|மசமச}}) – sluggish, lethargic
* ''viru-viru'' ({{lang|ta|விறுவிறு}}) – energetically (also, spicy)
* ''choda-choda'' ({{lang|ta|சொதசொத}}) – marshy, waterlogged
* ''paLa-paLa'' ({{lang|ta|பளப்பள/பளபள}}) – glittering, shiny
* ''veDa-veDa'' ({{lang|ta|வெடவெட}}) – shaking, trembling
* ''chuDa-chuDa'' ({{lang|ta|சுடச்சுட}}) – piping hot
* ''mAngu-mAngu'' ({{lang|ta|மாங்குமாங்கு}}) – laboriously
* ''gara-gara'' ({{lang|ta|கரகர}}) – crunchy (as in food), gravely (as in voice)
* ''gaba-gaba'' ({{lang|ta|கபகப}}) - wolfing down food
* ''doLa-doLa'' ({{lang|ta|தொளதொள}}) - hanging loose (as in loose fitting)
* ''taLa-taLa'' ({{lang|ta|தளதள}}) - lush (as in a lush plant/orchard)
* ''toNa-toNa'' ({{lang|ta|தொணதொண}}) - annoyingly incessant

===Xhosa===

In [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]], as in closely related Zulu, ideophones can convey very complex experiential impressions or can just strengthen meanings of other words. The ideophone is often introduced using the verb {{lang|xh|thi}} {{gloss|say}}.{{cn|date=January 2025}}

Using {{lang|xh|thi}}:
* {{lang|xh|cwaka}} – to be silent
:: {{lang|xh|Lixesha lokuthi cwaka}}. 'It is time to be silent.' [literally: 'It is time to say {{lang|xh|cwaka}}.']
* {{lang|xh|gqi}} – to suddenly appear
:: {{lang|xh|Bathi gqi abelungu eAfrika}}. 'The white people suddenly arrived in Africa.' [Literally: 'The white people said {{lang|xh|gqi}} in Africa.'])

Without using {{lang|xh|thi}}:
* {{lang|xh|ncam}} – exact
{{interlinear|indent=3|lang=xh|Andazi '''ncam'''.|{I do not know} IDEO|'I do not know exactly.'}}
* ''bhuxe'' – to stand motionless
{{interlinear|indent=3|lang=xh|Ndime '''bhuxe''' phambi kwakhe.|{I stood} IDEO before him.|'I stood motionless before him.'}}

==See also==
* [[Ideasthesia]]
* [[Sound symbolism]] (phonosemantics)
* [[Synesthesia]]
* [[Reduplication]]
* [[Onomatopoeia]]
* [[Japanese sound symbolism]]
* [[Bouba/kiki effect]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
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{{refend}}
[[Category:Phonaesthetics]]
[[Category:Semantics]]
[[Category:Parts of speech]]