Edmond's discussion of the phonaesthetics of these words addresses part
of Scott's question.  The larger class of ideophones, which includes the
examples discussed so far, doesn't concern itself with the origins of
the words.  And they are varied.  Carroll was undoubtedly playing with
the name of the knife, itself ideophonic.  Willy-nilly comes from Latin
vole-nole "will-won't".  Hurdy-gurdy is purely onomatopoeic.  Another
Carroll coinage, chortle, is an onomatopoeic blend of chuckle and snort.


 

Herb

 

 

Listmates,

One interpretation of the sound "snicker-snack" is that it is the sound
a snicker-snee (a large knife) makes.  Would this change the
interpretation of the term?

 

Scott Woods

	On Nov 25, 2007, at 10:32 AM, Kathi Bethell wrote:
	
	
	The question of onomotopoeia came up in a class discussion this
past week. A student questioned the form class of "Snicker-snack" (as in
"the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"). We moved on to animal sounds,
comic book sound effects (Pow! Zap! Kerplunk!) and thoroughly amused and
confused ourselves.
	
	The cow says "moo."
	The mooing cows moved toward the barn.
	The cow smiled mooily (okay, we were goofing off by then).
	
	It's easy to identify the verbs, adjectives, adverbs - but what
are the onomotopoetic words themselves? Although moo can be a noun (the
cow had a loud moo), what is snicker-snack?
	
	Kathleen Bethell
	
	
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