More on Eurasian expressives

[Jess Tauber]

Ok, so far I've dug back into my notebooks and dictionaries and have
assembled expressive corpora from the following:

Basque
Finnish
Ukranian
German
Albanian
Mongolian
Manchu
Nanai
Nivkh
Korean
Hindi
Malayalam
Santali
Hokkien
Bahnar

I also have data from many other languages I've still yet to re-examine
for the actual phonosemantics. But so far, and with what I also remember
from things I've seen in the Caucasus languages, Afroasiatic, Burushaski,
Austronesian, Japanese, etc., it looks like essentially the "same" overall
outline exists for all the languages so far as segment per segment
comparability is concerned.

This takes into account differences in phonological inventory size, shape,
specifics, allowed root structures, etc.

The major stop motif, for expressives (and many normal roots), in initial
position, is:

Labials encode the notion of suppressive membrane or other entity having
difficulty or unable to hold back the escape of what it is attempting to
suppress, force to work, stand still, etc., mechanically or socially.

Apicals encode the notion of successful suppression of an "upstart" entity
by something already ranking higher, or of a substratum blocking entry by
the trajector (just a reorientation spatially of the former). Lots of
examples denoting solid impact.

Palatals encode the notion of attempted or successful escape from some
enveloping substratum that holds one down or back (again mechanically or
socially). The main difference between labials and palatals here is that
the labials involve a bounding membrane (a concentric element exerting
positive pressure in the opposite direction) while palatals involve more
attachment and pulling by radicals, literally or figuratively, from below
or behind. Very often also is the idea of small fragments falling into
line, processes occurring bit by bit (as the radicals release one by a
sort of "unzipping" over time- think Velcro).

Velars encode the notion of inability or unwillingness of some self-bound
entity or substance to follow a lead or move out of some nook or zone of
relative safety, be it off to the side (versus the central channel), to
the back (behind a leader), etc. In addition there is a strong association
with relative dryness (versus the wetness of palatals), wrinkling,
emaciation and elongation, etc. Lots of examples of scratching, attempts
to clear the throat (scratchy!), etc.

The Indian retroflexes appear to have their counterparts in other
languages merged with plain apicals- this is the case, for instance, in
Korean. Whether this represents an actual merger historically or a simple
underdifferentiation is unknown. The retroflexes very often in initial
position encode the notion of bouncing, reverberation, and other cyclic
processes involving momentum being viscoelastically or elastically
mirrored.

That's it for stops. Later for other phonemes. Still, it does seem that
perhaps there is some sort of "universal" sound symbolism, at least for
expressives, at least as involves Eurasia areally.

Jess Tauber
phonosemantics at earthlink.net