Arabic-L:LING:Onomatopoeia post corrrection

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Wed 20 Dec 2006
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
            unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:Onomatopoeia post corrrection

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 20 Dec 2006
From:moderator
Subject:Onomatopoeia post corrrection

The recent post on onomatopoeia contained two errors:  1) M. Deeb's  
post was truncated, and 2) the contribution by M. Abdelwali is listed  
under M. Deeb's e-mail address.  Apologies to both.

M. Abdelwali's e-mail address is:  maabdelw at purdue.edu

The full text of the M. Deeb post is (with apologies to those for  
whom Arabic text is not currently coming through: I'm having the tech  
people look into it, but so far no solutions):


                               
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
------
                              |   > Do you think that the follow
                              |   >  > words in Arabic are examples  
of onomatopoeia?
                              |   >  >
                              |   >  > تمتم
                              |   >  > غمغم
                              |  >  > جلجل
                              |   >  >
                              |   >  > Thanks,
                              |   >  >
                              |  >  > Jeremy Palme
                              ------------------------------


On the onomatopoeia query:



               I.      Lest there be any misunderstanding, it is fair  
to ward off any suggestion that onomatopoeia is confined to certain  
quadriliteral verbs.  This figure of speech occurs in Arabic nouns,  
adjectives and verbal forms.



               I.      In respect of Dr. Palmer’s query, the  
doubling of the biliteral root (مضعف الرباعي) often  
expresses sound or movement, both of which are suggestive of  
onomatopoeia.  His (تمتم ، غمغم ،   جلجل) are perfect  
examples.



            II.      This verb form is both regular and common in  
Standard Written Arabic and spoken vernaculars, so much so that  
almost any letter in the Arabic alphabet would yield countless verbal  
forms, nouns   (مصادر)and adjectives, most of which are largely  
onomatopoeic.



          III.      Although the distinction between onomatopoeia  
(echoing) and kinesis (movement) is quite subtle, it would still be  
interesting to sort out such verbs and nouns.  A desultory leafing of  
Hans Wehr and لسان العرب leads me to a preliminary hypothesis  
that the onomatopoeic incidence is more frequent and much larger.



         IV.      To end on a light note, I would like to recall the  
pre-Islamic poet, Maymuun ibn Qays (الأعشى الكبير), who is  
keen to built up the phonoaesthetic effect in his poetry.  In one  
striking line of his l-rhymed ode, he combines such figures of speech  
as alliteration, assonance, synomymity and onomatopoeia:



وقد غدوت إلى الحانوت يتبعني        شاو  
نشول مشل شلشل شول



(Many a time I hastened in the morning to the tavern,

while there ran on my heels

an agile, spirited, fully energetic, compliant cook.)



             I hope this may help, and perhaps encourage revisiting  
the larger question of onomatopoeia.



                                                                         
                                                                         
                           M. Deeb





------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
End of Arabic-L:  20 Dec 2006
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/arabic-l/attachments/20061220/1b045cd7/attachment.htm>