What is Onomatopoeia?
Onomatopoeia is made of two Greek words, including "onoma" which means "name," and "poiein" which means "to make." The word Onomatopoeia means to make a name or sound. It is the process of creating sound words which mean nothing more than the sound they make. Words such as boing, oink, roar, meow, are just simple sound effects but are useful when writing a story. It makes writing more vivid and interesting. There are some onomatopoeic words that are not just sounds but even serve as verbs and nouns. Some of these words include slap, which is not just the sound that is produced when skin hits the skin but also implicates an action of a person hitting someone. Another example is the word rustle. It is a sound of something dry or a paper brushing together. But it is not just that sound; it is also an indication of action when someone walks on something dry, which makes a sound. Any words that add a sound effect to an action or a thing in reading or writing are known as onomatopoeic words. When the word has resemblance with the phonics of sound of the thing that we are describing is onomatopoeia. For example, author is writing something about animal sound or noises. So, they will use onomatopoetic sounds of animals such as a Cat’s sound is MEOW, Dog’s sound is BARK, or Cow sound is "MOO". The interesting thing is that you can make a little bit change in the onomatopoetic phrases or words for animal sounds from one language to another language. There must be an integration of linguistic system in words. That is why there are different sounds of pig in different languages such as it sounds "GRUNZ" in German, "KNOR" in Dutch, "OINK" in English, BUU in Japanese, and others. The origin of the definition onomatopoeia is a compound Greek word that is "the sound/name I make". Onomatopoetic word is sound of the things that writers strive to describe in the literature of English language. Onomatopoetic and its common examples - All animal sounds come under the examples of onomatopoeia. It has multiple examples that are: Machine sounds - boing, vroom, beep, honk, clang, etc. Nature sounds - rustle, spray, drip, splash, buzz, whoosh, etc. Impact sounds - bang, whack, boom, thump, crash, etc. Animal names - chickadee, whip-poor-will, whooping crane, cuckoo, etc. Voice sounds - hiss, blurt, giggle, shush, murmur, growl, whisper, whine, etc.
Sounds People Make
Choose the most descriptive word that appeals to your sense of sound in order to complete each sentence.
Make Comparisons
Underline the metaphor in each sentence below. Then identify the two things that are being compared.
Write It
: Choose one of the scenarios. Write a paragraph about the scenario that uses at least six of these types of sound words.
