When you hear the words boom, bang, or thud, you probably recall an idea about the sound the word describes. They don’t mimic the sound like an onomatopoeia does, but the sound of the word and its meaning just seem to fit. For example, try to identify the meanings of the following words in various different languages.
Shiin in Japanese means (a) loud or (b) silent?
Chamak chamak in Hindi means (a) plain or (b) flashy?
Varkpara in Dagaare means (a) messy or (b) clean?
Ratzfatz in German means (a) fast or (b) slow?
Mozhu-mozhu in Tamil means (a) rough or (b) smooth?
The answers to the questions are b/b/a/a/b.
Words like those above are called ideophones and they can be found in nearly every language on earth. If you answered many correctly, don’t be too surprised, the sounds of the words help you understand the meaning. If you struggled, don’t worry too much, studies show humans understand ideophones more easily when they are spoken by a native speaker rather than being read on a page. The notion that words evoke feelings within us is quite obvious; crying at the end of a sad movie or rejoicing after reading a college acceptance letter are evidence of this. The quandary that ideophones bring up is the concept of feelings evoked not by the meaning of the words spoken, but rather the sounds produced in saying them. The same concept can be seen in sound poetry. For those who are unfamiliar, sound poetry is a mix of literary and musical composition with few or no words that is specifically intended for performance. Sound poets attempt to evoke feelings using speech, in the same way ideophones do, not based on societal conceptions of language but instead using sound. The prevalence of ideophones in language and creation of sound poetry by humans can be comprehended in one of two ways. The first sees them as creatively advanced, showcasing how far the human race has come intellectually. The other interpretation regards ideophones and sound poetry as inherently primitive and a devolution of language. Ideophones are words that depict sensory imagery that are foundational to language as we know it, while poetry including sound poetry is seen as one of the most high functioning developments in human thought, this intensifies the debate of whether comprehension based simply upon sound is primitive or sophisticated.
According to linguist and ethnomusicologist Roger Blench ideophones are, “a characteristic feature of languages worldwide” (Blench 1). This near-universality of ideophones in language suggests that they serve a purpose for speakers or at least don’t hinder understanding. Other things that are evident in cultures around the globe include the use of fire and tools, division of labor, and belief in the supernatural (or something similar). All these require relatively high functioning thought. Anything that is universal in human cultures seems to have some advantage. Through this lense, maybe its true that ideophones are conceptually advanced rather than primitive. The view that sound poetry should be considered intellectually advanced is one that is widespread. Journalists like David Barber of The Atlantic explain, “poetry qualifies one for membership in an insular subculture, if not something closer to a secret society” (Barber 1). Louis Menand of The New Yorker wrote an article titled “Can Poetry Change Your Life?” where he later explains why it can, and has for many people. As for sound poetry in specific, it’s easy to focus on both Steve McCaffrey’s Carnival and The Four Horsemen’s Emotional Poetry.
Both pieces contain seemingly incoherent blurts, shouts, and noises by their performers. While some may see these performances as gibberish, it’s clear by reading the comments of the YouTube videos and seeing the followings McCaffrey and the other Four Horsemen have amassed, that many view this as art. Carnival and Emotional Poetry have gained so much notoriety not because listeners understand, but rather because the performance makes them feel a certain way. Creation for pleasure rather than necessity is in many ways what makes a species advanced. Similarly, poetry is believed by some to be a marker of intelligence, as Albert Einstein once said, “the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Furthermore, the forethought necessary to create a piece of sound poetry that will please and make sense to an audience is no small task. After all, is today’s society words are the overwhelming choice of how people express themselves in general, but especially sonically; based on this information it’s not hard to see how the use sound poetry and ideophones in society could be considered intellectually advanced.
The argument that sound poetry and ideophones is instead an example of primitive language practices is more complex. For starters, the origin of ideophones is claimed to be a universal or at least almost universal characteristic of human language. There is a basis to this claim, indigenous African languages are some that utilize ideophones the most whereas ideophones are the least prevalent in western languages like English. Psycholinguist Mark Dingemanse states, “the sheer ubiquity of ideophones… makes it clear that depiction in speech, and in particular, a class of marked words that depict sensory imagery, is a common feature of human language” (Dingemanse 6). The fact that ideophones are a foundational element of human language strengthens the argument of them being primitive. Additionally, sound poetry as a whole is an abstract composition and can be seen as a devolution of language. Sound theorist Brandon LaBelle argues that an integral thread to sound poetry is “a recuperation of a primal, original voicing” (LaBelle 148). The lack of formal words in McCaffrey and The Four Horsemen’s performances is gibberish to an uninformed listener or on paper. LaBelle even talks about McCaffrey specifically, engaging with McCaffrey’s thought that the primary goal of sound poetry is “the liberation and promotion of phonetic and sub-phonetic features to language… for creative, subversive endeavors” (LaBelle 150).
The origins of ideophones and sound poetry can be interpreted differently as either being primitive or advanced. Does being central to almost every human language classify as being primitive because its roots date back to the beginning of humankind, or does this classify as being intellectually advanced because it has survived for so long? Does sound poetry devolve language because it uses no words and relies on the listeners to interpret sounds for themselves, or does it advance language for the same reason? Each person may have varying answers to these questions, and none of them are objectively wrong. The ability of humans to comprehend and derive meaning from sounds alone is complex and not easy to explain. What is true, is that it can’t completely be described as intellectually primitive or advanced. It’s almost certainly a mix of the two. The composition of a piece using primitive sounds that people understand instinctively, in a way that is conceptually advanced is no simple feat. So maybe it’s best to just enjoy sound poetry, and enjoy the uncanny ability to comprehend some words from foreign languages.
Works Cited
barambia. “”The Four Horsemen’s” emotional poetry.” Youtube,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5sB_YvvSS4. Accessed Mar. 2, 2019
Barber, David. “ What Makes Poetry ‘Poetic’?” The Atlantic. 1999. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/03/what-makes-poetry-poetic/377508/
Blench, Roger. “The Sensory World: Ideophones in Africa and Elsewhere.” Perception of the Invisible: Religion, Historical Semantics and the Role of Perceptive Verbs, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika. 2010. http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Africa/General/Blench%20African%20Ideophones.pdf
Dingemanse, Mark. “Advances in the Cross‐Linguistic Study of Ideophones.” Language and Linguistics Compass. 2012. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lnc3.361
LaBelle, B., Neumark, N., Gibson, R., & van Leeuwen, T. Raw Orality: Sound Poetry and Live Bodies. Voice: Vocal Aesthetics in Digital Arts and Media, 147-71. 2010 http://www.brandonlabelle.net/texts/LaBelle_RawOrality(2010).pdf
Menand, Louis. “Can Poetry Change Your Life?” The New Yorker. 2017. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/31/can-poetry-change-your-life
shuffleboil. “Steve McCaffery reading from Carnival, @ Instal 09, Glasgow.” Youtube,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=843O0bTVKHQ. Accessed Mar. 2, 2019.
