Sounds All Around: A Guide to Onomatopoeias

Sounds All Around: A Guide to Onomatopoeias — page 3
If you sing Old McDonald Had a Farm in French your farmyard ducks go coin coin instead of quack quack and in Russian they go krya krya From the sound of a speeding car to the sound a dog makes to the sound of rain there are almost as many words for these sounds as there are languages Early Beginnings Many linguists the people who study language believed that onomatopoeic words partly explain how early humans began communicating and may hold the key to the origin of language itself There are a few nicknames for these theories The Bow Wow Theory Language first came about from imitating animal noises like barking dogs and bird song The Pooh Pooh Theory Language evolved from imitating natural human sounds like crying babies and laughter The Ding Dong Theory Language began by imitating sounds in nature like thunder or the wind sure No one knows for certain how language first came about but one thing is for onomatopoeias are a fascinating part of how we understand the world and each other Come and join us as we learn more about these sounds all around