Q: Imitative words

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I'm writing a popular book on the study of language change, in which I'm
trying to teach the reader to recognize the difference between serious work
and amateurish crud.  One thing I'm talking about is words which are not
available to serve as comparanda in comparing languages.  I've already
written a long section on the 'mama'/'papa' words.  Now I'm working on a
section on words of imitative origin.

So far, I have three sets of such words, as follows:

  [pu-] 'puff of breath', 'blow'
  [tu-] 'spit, saliva'
  [ber(-ber)] 'boil', with transferred senses like 'hot', 'fire', 'burn'
     'cook'

For each of these I have a modest collection of representative items from
miscellaneous languages.  But I would welcome further examples of any of
these, from any languages at all, including reconstructed ones.

I would also welcome any additions to the list of widely occurring
imitative formations like these three.  These are the only ones I know of,
but I suppose there may be others.

Please reply to me privately, and I'll post a summary to the list.


Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)