By\nJames Shakow<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People don\u2019t talk about Ideophones because they can\u2019t fully comprehend them. It can be scary to hear a word and feel something innate without knowing why. With all the connotations associated with language, people, especially English speakers have a hard time seeing a word for anything but the sense that we have ascribed to it. Most of the words in any language, and almost all the words in the English language, are not ideophones but instead simply arbitrary sounds that do not have any inherent meaning other than their defined sense. In his journal Armoskaite explores other languages, especially non-romantic languages such as Ewe from Ghana, Navajo from the American west, Japanese and Basque, that have evolved in a way more ideophonic and less abstract than the English language. Ideophones are words that carry objective significance to any given listener regardless of language, cultural background, or personal experience. Similar to onomatopoeic words, gestures, and some universal human noises, (i.e. crying or laughter), ideophonic words are comprehensible across language barriers. Ideophones push the limits of human communication by incorporating sound sensory into language; they enforce Stearns notion that words have more meaning behind them than their simple definitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ideophones are inherently subconscious. Because each one is relatable on a visceral primordial level, they can be understood regardless of what language they\u2019re spoken in. As Armoskaite describes it, \u201cideophones lead speakers to unconsciously endow particular sounds with specific sensory meanings\u201d. In the way that a \u2018K\u2019 or \u2018T\u2019 sound could feel inherently sharp, the heaviness of a \u2018G\u2019 or a \u2018B\u2019 is palpable to the ear. He claims that ideophones \u201cplay a central role in very large theoretical questions about the parallels between verbal and nominal domains\u201d. The line between verbal communication and non-lingual conversation is blurred. Ideophones carry an intuitive meaning that does not need to be auditory to be understood. While they do carry specific meanings in the language they are native to, a non-speaker could still comprehend the objective sense of an ideophone. Robson uses the Japanese examples of \u201cwakuwaku<\/em>\u201d as an evocation of excitement, \u201cnunurunu<\/em>\u201d as sliminess, and \u201cgorogoro<\/em>\u201d as heaviness. Because of the different vowel and consonant sounds present in these words, on a subconscious level, we automatically comprehend them as something more \u2018exciting\u2019 or \u2018slimy\u2019 or \u2018heavy\u2019 rather than ‘dull’, ‘dry’ or ‘light’. The way we perceive the sounds in these words tricks our brain into giving them specific descriptive characteristics because of their ideophonic properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest way to comprehend ideophones is to look at them in the context of another language. If we ignore the preconceived notions we have about English we are able to look at language in a solely vocal lens and gain more from the concept of the ideophone. The Basque language has more than 4,000 ideophones that follow the same vocal principals that Robson examines in his article. Similar vocal sounds connote similar meanings in Japanese and Basque, Ewe and English alike. This is not due to change. In his topical essay, Iraide Ibarretxe-antu\u00f1ano claims that \u201crecent research on this topic has shown that these elements are pervasive in all languages and that they might share some linguistic characteristics across languages.\u201d Ideophones are universal communicators, and the English language doesn\u2019t take as much advantage of them as many others do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideophones can communicate feelings across languages, but famously they have been able to convey feeling through invented words. In Lewis Carroll\u2019s Jabberwocky, he juxtaposes his own fantasy words with a story in English. Even though these words have never appeared anywhere else and we have no prior connotations with them, we are able to ascribe meaning to them through ideophonic notions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n