Onomatopoeia, including lute painting, sound painting, or onomatopoeia, is a rhetoric style used in all literary genres. Onomatopoeia means the reproduction and imitation of non-linguistic sounds by linguistic means. That is, words or phrases are intended to remind the receiver (reader, listener) of how this auditory sound or sound they actually sound sounds. Such onomatopoetic words therefore recall or mimic a sound, but are not always self-explanatory.
The term is a mixture of ancient Greek and French. The ancient Greek ónoma (ὄνομα) can be translated by name, whereby the French poésie can be translated through poetry. In some lexicons, therefore, the terms onomatopoeia and onomatopoeia are found, which prevents the intermingling of languages and points to the Greek origin. These nouns mean the same thing.
The Greek equivalent of the word shows us really what is going on. Thus, poíēsis (ποίησις) can be translated with creation or creation. Thus, the whole circumscribes the creation of a name and could be translated approximately with a name coined / rename. Onomatopoeia is therefore an attempt to imitate what is meant by means of sound means. Let’s look at an example.
(1) A cuckoo flies on the tree. The leaves are rustling.
The above example includes two onomatopoietics: cuckoo and rustle. The cuckoo bird owes its name to the male’s call. This call, that is, the gu-cow, was phonetically adopted into the animal’s name. Also in other languages, this can be traced back to the cuckoo bird (French ~ Coucou, italian ~ cucú, russian ~ Kukuschka, Greek ~ koukoula, narrow ~ cuckoo, pol ~ kukułka, Latin cuculus).
The verb rustles also reminds of the noise it designates. The creaking consonant at the beginning, the r, and the hissing sound in the middle clearly illustrate the sound of the rustling. These examples are word-forming phonetics because whole words are derived from the sound of a process or thing, as well as dripping, rattling, whipping, or rumble. Furthermore, there are interjections:
(2) “Peng! I met the can! ”
The above example starts with the interjection peng. In German, interjections belong to the types of words and have no meaning in the narrow sense. Nevertheless, interjections express a certain sensation, assessment or will of speech. Such interjections consist of different groups. One of these includes all terms that attempt to mimic sounds and noises and are therefore onomatopoietics. Other examples would be puff, klong, ratchet, hui or boing.
(3) “Come here,” the mother implores ”
The direct speech of the example can be interpreted as an exclamation (exclamation), whereas the word fl ows to the circumscribed onomatopoetics. That is, the sound is not mimicked, as in the previous examples, but is designated by a word. Through this naming, however, the sound is implied, ie, indicated, without naming it unambiguously. Other examples include wooden, trumpet, metallic, and similar combinations.
Short overview: forms of onomatopoeia
(1) word-forming onomatopoietics: This form of onomatopoeia forms its own words. These remind in their sound of what is meant and thus reproduce it in a phonetic way.
(2) Interjections: Express my words, which have no lexical meaning anyway, nevertheless something. If they imitate sounds, they can be interpreted as onomatopoeia.
(3) circumscribed onomatopoietics: are words which do not sound immediately after what they mean but imply the sound. Name him by name.
Onomatopoeia as a rhetorical stylistic device
In rhetoric, all the above forms of onomatopoietics are believed, but the literary text has, above all, word-forming onomatopoeia a decisive effect. The ancient rhetoric still included the stylistic means to the tropics. At that time, however, tropes were still regarded as stylistic figures, which represent a departure from the everyday language. This is true of onomatopoeia.
In the literature, we find mainly lyric elements in poetry and rarely in prose texts. Here, however, not only does a single word achieve the phonetic effect, but usually several words are condensed which cause a certain basic mood and appear atmospheric. Let us take a look at an exemplary stanza by Clemens Brentano, a German poet:
If a song sings so sweetly,
Like the sources on the pebbles,
Like the bees around the linden tree
Sums, mutter, whisper, trickle.
The last verse is decisive in this example, which follows the cross-rhyming. In the line of verse four onomatopoetics are joined together. The hum is reminiscent of the sound of the bees; the murmur sounds like a muted, indistinct sound; the whisper points out of itself to a whispering, low sound and the trickling reminds of a quiet, gentle, bright flow or even noise.
Loudspeaking and synaesthesia
In conjunction with a synaesthesia, phonetic words can appeal to other sensory impressions. Thus, onomatopoetics are not only the imitation of noises, but can also make audible visuals, thus enabling an extension of the expression.
Synesthesia is the combination of two sensory impressions. If such an onomatopoetic does not only create a phonetic illusion, but the respective word is also visualized by the recipient, the hearing and seeing are connected to one another. In this case, this is an indirect form of synesthesia. Let’s look at an example.
The anger flashed from his eyes.
In the above example the onomatopoeia can be interpreted as a form of indirect synaesthesia. The verbal verb flashing reminds the reader of the twitch of the flash. The lightning does not make a real sound, but is only accompanied by thunder. Nevertheless its characteristics are taken up.
The word lightning is monosyllable, but is also spoken quickly in derivations and forms, which is underlined by the bright vowel (i). It is also likely that the hissing (tz) best suits this natural power. Thus, the concept takes up the peculiarities of lightning and combines a visual stimulus with an audible word – the combination of two sensory impressions, thus a phonetic synaesthesia.
Onomatopoeia in the literature
Onomatopoeia has been documented in the literature since antiquity and has since been clearly documented in all the literature. However, the characteristics of tonal painting have changed over time, and we have encountered in the last centuries partly in experimental form, which sometimes resembles a linguistic gibberish, and hence the nonsense.
Already the ancient poets put on phonetic elements and thus the stylistic means can already be found in the texts of the poets Aristophanes, Vergil or also Ovid. Let us take a look at a verse from Ovid, which, by the accumulation of the diphthong, is intended to remind us, among other things, of the croaking of the frogs, which are not directly named but merely indicated:
quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua maledicere temptant
Translation: Although they are under water, they try to blaspheme under water
Martin Opitz, a very important theorist of baroque, who among other things elevated the Alexandrians to the essential verses of German poetry, praised and supported the elements of phonetic composition in the literature. The stylistic means could serve to an extension of the expression. As a result, the use of onomatoposia in the baroque literature was partly exaggerated.
Later, onomatopetics can be demonstrated especially in the folk poetry of classical music. For example, there are numerous texts by Schiller and Goethe’s phonetic elements which amplify the expression of the written word and thus expand it. But also in the Romantic period, some poets can be named, who put the sound in words, like Brentano or Mörike.
In the last centuries, the sound seal took a prominent place in the literature. The German poet Paul Scheerbart (1863-1915), who is known above all for wonderful and fantastic literature, published 1897 in his novel I love you the sound poem Kikakokú:
Ekoraláps!
Wîso kollipánda opolôsa.
Ipasátta íh fûo.
Kikakokú proklínthe petêh.
Nikifilí mopaléxio intipáschi benakáffro – própsa pî! própsa pî!
Jasóllu nosaréssa flípsei.
Aukarótto passakrússar Kikakokú.
Núpsa púsch?
Kikakokú bulurú?
Futupúkke – própsa pî!
Jasóllu …….
The characters above the individual letters are intended to indicate the emphasis on the individual words. It is obvious that the poem is deprived of known words and attempted to achieve an effect due to the sound. Scheerbart wanted to refer to the diversity of his phonetic works, criticizing his contemporaries, who often used literature as a mere entertainment.
Kroklokwafzi? Semememi!
Seiokrontro – prafriplo:
Bifzi, bafzi; hulalemi:
quasti basti bo …
Lalu lalu lalu lalu la!
Hontraruru miromente
zasku zes rü rü?
Entepente, Leiolente
klekwapufzi lü?
Lalu lalu lalu lalu la!
Simarar kos malzipempu
silzuzankunreire (;)!
Marjomar dos: Quempu Lempu
Siri Suri Sei [] Lalu lalu lalu lalu la!
The above work is titled The Great Lalula and is by the German poet and writer Christian Morgenstern (1871-1914). Morning syllables join one another, the meanings of which are hardly accessible to the recipient. The meaning of the work is therefore in the background and rather the play with the sounds, which becomes clear. An interpretation of the work in order to experience the sound seal:
Only a few years later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a group of artists took up the lute painting and explained it to the main content of their lyric poetry: the Dadaists. The Dada movement, also Dadaism, was directed against society and its values. Numerous works of that time still serve today as an example or inspiration source of the modern sound and sound seal.
Sound compactors have always had a hard time when they are perceived by the public and especially appreciated as artists. At times, such verses do not recognize the fact that they use lyrical means and are therefore to be regarded as a poem and, consequently, as an art.
Short overview: The most important thing about loudspeaking at a glance
Onomatopoeia describes the reproduction as well as imitation of non-linguistic sounds by linguistic means. The reader or listener is thus reminded by the sound of the word to the sound which produces the sign. The word thus refers to what is meant.
Basically, three forms of onomatopoeia can be distinguished: (1) word-forming and (3) circumscribed onomatopoietics as well as (2) interjections. In lyric poetry, we are usually confronted with forms belonging to the first group.
Onomatopoeia can be found in all literary periods and is therefore already documented in ancient times. The imitating of a sound developed into drastic, experimental forms, which mainly focused on the sound. Sound poetry is therefore not an onomatopoeia in the strict sense.