Exploration of Phonosemantic Segments in Central Nigeria and

Orthography/Translation Practices Part 1: the case of Tarok1

By Selbut R. Longtau

Development Alternatives, Research & Training

5 Lugard Road

P.O. Box 1826, Jos

selbutlongtau@gmail.com

Abstract

Central Nigerian languages have been poorly served by the literature on phonosemantics in

Africa and Nigeria in particular. Data of Tarok language in central Nigeria are examined for

special use of phonemes and segments that encode emotive meanings. Phonosemantics in the

language covers onomatopoeia, ideophones, tonal changes, manipulation of phoneme length and

prosodies to encode emotive content of size, sensations and the like. A few examples other than

Tarok will be cited too for better understanding of the phenomena that may be relevant in the

entire central Nigeria.

This exploratory work provides data that can inform theoretical considerations. Implications are

drawn for efficient orthography development and adequate translation. This has to do with

translation practices that try to capture the emotive content of texts, be they religious, political,

literary or auditory. The conclusion is that the phonosemantics phenomena may be quite

widespread in Central Nigeria but little studied simply for the reason that linguists have not been

aware of its existence beyond ideophones and/or onomatopoeia.

1 Initially I set out to explore this subject for central Nigerian languages with particular reference to Izere, Iten and Tarok as one

paper. In view of the fact that the preliminary research shows that the phenomenon is widespread, I changed my mind to do a

bottom-up research starting with Tarok first before drawing conclusions that can be applied in orthography development and

translation practices. Izere, Iten and others will constitute Parts 2 and 3. The paper series canvasses for the introduction of

phonosemantics in language development courses in Nigeria. I appreciate the comments and questions raised when I presented

the paper at the meeting of the Jos Linguistics Circle held on 28th January, 2015 at Mountain View Jos. I appreciate Dr. Roger

Blench‟s suggestions to untangle issues that were conflated in the presentation version.

1. Introduction

The inception of this paper was the discovery of a striking similarity in sound and meaning of the

components of the word gidigba2 in an Igbo song to Tarok and other central Nigerian languages

that can be attributed to the voiced labio-velar double plosive /gb/. The meaning in a variety of

contexts and languages of the /gba/ morpheme is approximately „big‟, „large‟, „important‟,

„awesome‟, „enormous‟, „incredible‟, and so on. However, central Nigerian languages have been

poorly served by the literature on phonosemantics in Africa and Nigeria. Doke (1935), Samarin

(1965, 1967, 1970) and Childs (1994) are classics on Bantu ideophones and an African review

respectively. Blench (2010) is a look at ideophones in Africa and elsewhere. Rowlands (1970),

Courtenay (1976), Fordyce (1983) and Awoyale (1989) treat Yoruba ideophones. Maduka

(1983/4, 1988) and Blench et al. (in press) cover Igbo and languages of south-south Nigeria

respectively. Exceptions in Central Nigeria are Mwaghavul (Blench, in press a) and Tarok

(Blench, in press b). Even so, the predominant theme has been on ideophones, a more visible

type of phonsemantics phenomenon, at the expense of the other sub-sets of onomatopoeia and

phonaesthemes. This simplistic classification is the approach taken in the paper.

The first part provides samples of the morphology and phonology of phonosemantic segments in

Tarok. The second part highlights the implications for effective and dynamic translations that

will capture the emotive content of texts, be they religious, political, literary or auditory.

Appropriate ideophones and phonaesthemes of a language should always be shown in writing

and not left out. It is a principal device that captures the emotive content of a text more than any

other component of grammar. The traditional strategy has been to see phonosemantics in terms

of an overlap between onomatopoeia, ideophones and sound symbolism. However, a phoneme

can be assigned semantic roles that add beauty to a language.

Words with phonosemantic roles in Tarok have been treated with contempt by some early

translators as the „language of toads‟ that even warranted a shift in policy that saw Hausa as

more sophisticated and should be promoted above Tarok in part of the missionary era of 1920s.

Therefore, this study of applied linguistics for orthography development and translation practices

needs to be taken to new heights beyond traditional definitions and limits.

2. Definitions and methodology

2.1 Definitions

Magnus (2010) sees sound symbolism and phonosemantics as the same. She identifies 3 types:

onomatopoeia, clustering and iconism. Onomatopoeia according to her is:

simply a word or sound that imitates something. A vivid English example will be the bird name

„cuckoo‟. Others are crash, bang and whoosh.

Clustering on the other hand is

a phenomenon whereby words may share a sound that has something in common in meaning. It can

also be that if a word begins with a particular phoneme, then there is likely to be a number of other

words starting with that phoneme that refer to the same thing. An example is that if the basic word

for 'house' in a given language starts with an /h/, then by clustering, disproportionately many words

2 Text of the song: O‟tua ka Chineke anyi rah. Agidigba o o o. Agidigba o.

containing /h/ can be expected to concern housing: hut, home, hovel, habitat and so on. This will be

in proportion above the average for other letters.

The third type of sound symbolism according to her is iconism:

It becomes apparent when comparing words which have the same sort of referent. One way is to

look at a group of words that all refer to the same thing and that differ only in their sound, such as

'stamp', 'stomp', 'tamp', 'tromp', 'tramp', and 'step'. An /m/ before the /p/ in some words makes the

action more forceful; compare 'stamp' with 'step' or 'tamp' with 'tap'. The /r/ sets the word in motion,

especially after a /t/ so a 'tamp' is in one place, but a 'tramp' goes for a walk. The /p/ in all those

words would be what emphasizes the individual steps.

Such categorization for English is tenable and can be generated from a study of a standard

dictionary that has been developed over a long period. Blench (personal communication) stated

the importance of making a distinction between as ideophones and phonaesthemes. For example

the English phonaestheme „gl‟ which appears in „gold‟, „glitter‟, „glow‟ and so on clearly are part

of a similar nexus of meaning but they are not ideophones in the accepted sense. Central Nigeria

languages have been poorly documented and described. Their study is not at the level that we

can readily cite good examples of clustering, iconism and onomatopoeia. It is only recently that

some elementary dictionaries are being compiled. Table 1 is an attempt to provide examples of

all three categories in an African language.

Table 1 – Tarok examples of onomatopoeia, clustering and iconism3

Tarok Gloss

Onomatopoeia iŋaŋa “Glossy ibis” - name derived from

the sound of its cry ŋa…ŋa…

Clustering abaksəm “armpit”

abək “bird‟s nest”

abəkcí “house in language of

masquerades”

mbɨk “woman‟s private room”

awuluŋ “large dark cavity/abyss”

awuloŋ “large lit cavity/abyss”

afɨp “bushy edge of a field”

afəp “darkness”

afoktok “bush”

Iconism toŋ “to trample” toŋci “to march on

something only once”

myaŋ “to pinch the skin

repeatedly” myaŋci “to pinch only once”

kəp “to bite

repeatedly” kəpci “to bite only once”

zal “to scatter all over”

3 §3.1 gives more details.

dal “to stretch out well”

zəlll… “slimy” - adverb

dəlll… “thickly” - adverb

Other examples will be provided in this paper that may fall into these types but not in a

watertight manner since there is no total agreement on whether or not sound symbolism should

be subsumed under phonosemantics or the other way round.

Abelin (2000) undertook experimentations with the symbolism of consonant clusters in Swedish

and concluded that;

For the contrastive studies, the general results are that there are both similarities and dissimilarities

between the expressions in the different languages. The variation is greater for some semantic fields

than for others.

Chan (1996) is a useful synthesis that tried to explain the different types of sound symbolism.

She noted that;

Hinton et al. (1994) tended to focus on the more universal tendencies in their typology, and ignored

sound-symbolic phenomena that, though more language-specific, are iconically motivated. In their

system, such phenomena fall between their „synesthetic sound symbolism‟ and „conventional sound

symbolism‟ and fitting neither category. Hence, a further refinement of their typology, or

classification, is proposed here by subdividing their third and most important category for sound-

symbolic phenomena, namely, „synesthetic sound symbolism‟, into two categories: „universal

synesthetic sound symbolism‟, and „local synesthetic sound symbolism‟. The result is a five-

category typology of sound symbolism: corporeal sound symbolism, imitative sound symbolism,

universal synesthetic sound symbolism, local synesthetic sound symbolism, and conventional sound

symbolism. The proposed classification is supported by data from Chinese.

In the case of Tarok we would rather see its phonosemantic segments in terms of the sub-sets of

onomatopoeia – imitation of nature in human language; ideophones – manipulation of human

speech to capture human experiences; morphophonemic determined meaning-specific symbolism

created to express human emotions and phonaesthemes. The bottom-up approach in this paper is

in order to encourage low profile scholarship that will generate quality data to be taken up in

high level comparative theoretical abstractions.

2.2 Methodology

We have found Ohala (1997) an apt and concise working definition and description of the

methodology of this paper. He stated that;

If we find similar sounds associated with similar meanings in a sufficiently diverse number of

languages, especially those not genetically or areally connected, then we might with some

confidence consider whether a non-arbitrary sound-meaning relation exists and then seek an

explanation for it. Sound symbolism is the non-arbitrary connection between certain classes of

speech sounds and the meanings of the words or morphemes they are in.

The data in Paterson (2012:260-261) provides an interesting example from a West Kainji

language involving a unique noun ubԑb “giant” which she said may be due to the augmentative

and human qualities inherent in the word‟s meaning. The augmentative is a derivational option

for speakers who wish to indicate marked increase in size. Other examples involving a vowel

with additional symbolic meaning are:

utar “rock” atar “large rock”

uba “lake aba “big lake”

unɔm “thing” anɔm “big thing”

It is clear that a- in the above context is the morpheme responsible for the meaning „big‟.

We shall delve into the full range of phonosemantic segments and suprasegmentals in Tarok to

provide data that can help related languages to have a paradigm for full analysis if it would be so

desired.

3. Phonosemantic Segment Types in Tarok

Tarok is an East Benue-Congo language of the Tarokoid sub-group of the Plateau family. The

Tarok people are centred about Langtang town 180 km southeast of Jos in central Nigeria. The

language is resplendent in phonosemantic and symbolic sounds that are onomatopoeic,

ideophonic, phonological and mimicry expressions found in a variety of social contexts. When

ideophones are transposed into nouns (Longtau, in progress) the sound devices that were brought

along are no longer prominent. However, not every reduplication, repetition and verbal or

adverbial extension is symbolism. The social context is by far the most important determiner of

sound symbolism and phonosemantic usage. They are not idiosyncratic but common knowledge

of most competent speakers of the language. Therefore etymological inferences made here are

purely of historical reasons and not to build a paradigm for morphology and phonology. It is not

easy to conclude at this stage whether sound symbolism is being reconstruction, residual or

borrowed from the perspectives of historical linguistics. This work is not a typological study

also.

3.1 Mimicry sound symbolism

Mimicry is a genre found in Tarok oratures derived from both human and folktales characters for

the purpose of sarcasm, satire, humour, commentary on morality, character molding; and

perception on how sounds can be described and just recently in the last 20 years as a form of

entertainment. Like Tarok miniature stories, participants in the discourse must have privy to the

true character and information on the one being mimicked (Lar 2005, Longtau 2008, 2010).

Mimicry is usually in standard Tarok and will not engage our attention much. Longtau (1997: )

provides examples of mimicry in children game-songs in the process of brewing the local liquor

as:

kikok kikok nce mi nce ikaba

sound-of-quern-stone sound-of-quern-stone beer mine beer rice

My beer is made of rice.

A bold and obstinate child can even mimic the slow or sluggish way the mother goes about the

brewing chore. This would attract a paroxysm of laughter, but a sure reprimand from the senior

children. The child achieves the negative connotation by assigning an oblique low tone (kikok

kikok). This example may be considered by some as ideophonic but Tarok has a preponderance

of repetition, reduplication and lengthening of syllables that can only be defined according to

functional social semantic load and roles. Kikok kikok is a mimic of the sound made by the upper

and lower grinding stones. A further example as in:

kangshat kuk kuk kuk

sieve kuk kuk kuk

I am sieving with the sieve kuk kuk kuk.

The kuk kuk kuk mimics the act of sieving using the cornstalk sieve, akangshat. Sounds that can

be mimicked are open ended including social misdemeanor as farting, clapping of hands in the

night, whistling in the night and so on. The sound of a clanging bell or gong; falling of objects

etc. can be described in various ways as in Table 2:

Table 2 - Sound Symbolism in mimicking

Sound Gloss Example

gɨlanggɨlang “sound made by the clanging

of a bicycle bell”

Le asəl. U fe iɓənggəng kə nnap

gɨlang…gɨlang kət ɗo? “Give way. Can‟t

you hear the bell ringing gɨlang…gɨlang?”

goonggoong “sound made by pulling a

Church bell”

Iɓənggəng kə nnap goonggoong te, ya ma

wong a sande sɨkul cit na ɗak. “Since the bell

is sounding goonggoong then they must have

finished Sunday School.”

papapa “sound made when passing

diarrhea”

Uyen tə i tung awar tə papapa te, amwang na

lyat ɗo? “What really could be responsible

for the child to be defecating pa…pa…pa?

kakkɨrakkak “sound made by a small falling

metal ball on hard floor”

Uyen tə le ka aboris kə ce kang a ru

kakkɨrak…kak tə ya? “Where did the boy get

[bicycle] bearings that it has fallen

kakkirak…kak?”

piiipiii “sharp sound made by the horn

of a vehicle”

Izur nap cit piiipiii te, ya ma kə nlok ɓu.

“They must be waiting for you. The horn

piipii can be heard.”

guurguur “sound made as a result of the

churning of the stomach” Wa ncwang. U fe afu i nap guurguur kət ɗo?

“Drink potash. Can‟t you hear your

stomach churning guurguur.

The above examples fit the traditional notion of „sound symbolism‟ because the words in

themselves are not perfect mimics but meaning is assigned to them symbolically. Syntactically

these are adverbs but the usual markers are not used to heighten the impact and can be defined

even functionally as adjectives.

3.2 Symbolic meaning of Tarok puns

3.3 Tarok phonaesthemes

Regular phonemes can be modified in Tarok and assigned symbolic meaning as captured by the

morphology. Table 3 provides further examples;

Table 3 – phonaesthemes Sound Symbolism in Tarok

Form reflecting

Symbolism

Gloss Commentary on sound symbolism

component

Form in current

Tarok orthography

ìdìshìlììì civet cat The name for this cat is so called

because of its „bushy‟ –dìshìlì tail. The

regular adverb is dish. The –li element

heightens the symbolism from the

speaker‟s perception.

ìdìshìlì

nduŋsuul dry cereal roots The stem of the noun connotes

„shapelessness‟. nduŋsul

mmerere antelope sp. The antelope is so called because of its

extremely slender –mèrerè horn. The

adverb from which the word is derived

is from a verb me „to project‟ and the

adjective also derived from a verb re.

The additional –re element repeated in

forming the adjective sharply imprints

the symbolism.

mmerere

nryâŋ frog sp. This frog is so called because of its

exceptional ability to quickly jump –

ryâng when someone wants to catch it.

The kinetic tone brings out the

symbolism. The regular adverb is ryaŋ.

nryaŋ

ìwuyaat mousebird This bird is so called because of an

extended meaning of wuyat as the noise

the bird makes. Originally the name is

derived from iwu ya atak „eyes that

sees‟, implying „big eyes‟. The –yat

element brings the symbolism to the

fore is as a result of morphophonemic

manipulations.

ìwuyat

ìcàlolo mudfish The fish is so called due to its longish

size and slimy skin. The repetition of -

lo imprints the symbolism otherwise it

would been a simple nominalization of

the verb cal „to be long‟.

ìcàlolo

idalolo water-weed,

Ipomoea

eriocarpa

The creeper is so called due to its

longish size and profuse branching. The

basic word is the verb dal „to stretch

out‟ and so the repeated –lo is an

adverbs.

idalolo

mɓadɨlll “twitching of

muscles”

This happens when the arm or thigh

muscle is given a punch. mɓadɨl

idəlllkən water-weed The liquid together with the vowel is

the key element for symbolic meaning.

It captures the slimy nature of the weed.

idəlkən

adəlllkən dargaza The liquid together with the vowel is

the key element for symbolic meaning.

It captures the slimy nature of the bark

of the shrub.

adəlkən

idərrrkən creeping grass sp. The liquid together with the vowel is

the key element for symbolic meaning.

It captures the complete cover of the

vegetation.

idərkən

ìlyaaŋgúu algae The long vowels are the triggers for

symbolic meaning. ìlyaŋgú

The voiceless alveoloar palatal fricative features in sound symbolism in this unique case. The

ngbɨf “expression meaning „it serves the other right‟” [U toŋci] akup kət tong kət [te u toŋci]

inyam ŋgbɨf? It serves you right ŋgbɨf, whether „you have hit a bone or flesh‟. „Bone‟ is

misfortune, while „flesh‟ is good luck. The literal translation is: you hit bone or maybe flesh

ŋgbɨf. This expression is used by a younger child to another who had just bullied him but then

has been unlucky by hitting his feet against a hard object. The younger child uses the expression

to show indifference to the misfortune that has befallen the bully and to insult the senior child at

the same time. The smaller child must flee or the older child will come back for revenge. The

words in brackets are only implied and not uttered.

A unique example solísoo „expression used by younger boys attempting to comment on their

elders‟. The word is usually whistled instead of spoken aloud. Solísoo, acì ìrùgu co ɗo? ‘Tch!

are those the eggs of a chicken?‟ [Commenting on an elder who is walking around with his

testicles exposed.]

Emotive meaning in the examples is primarily driven by native speaker perception of the

sensations rather than mere morphology or phonology. The symbolic sound segments in Table 2

& 3 are not onomatopoeic but can only be analyzed phonosemantically.

3.2 Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeic words in Tarok may mimic sounds in nature. This will include those that are

imitation of sounds that are as close as possible for the purpose of nomenclature and

metaphorical usage that are not necessarily shared by mere mimicry. Mimicry is about character

traits in a person, fauna and so on. Onomatopoeia in Tarok has no social context but only a

naming function. They may start as mimics but become standardized. Table 4 shows some

examples.

Table 4 – Onomatopoeia in Tarok nceyi ncici “wild duck” The bird makes the noise ceyicici! The -ceyicici element is a

naming sound symbolism.

ŋghàr “tiny bird sp.” The name is so called from the way the birds fly up quickly as a

group from the adjective -ghər. There is a shift in meaning in the

adjective -ghər to ghar to avoid the use of masquarade language

with the same meaning.

iŋaŋa “Glossy ibis” Name derived from the sound of its cry ŋa…ŋa…

True onomatopoeic segments in Tarok are nouns only and are few.

3.2.3 Ideophones

Tarok ideophones4 are very diverse and basically overlap with adverbs. However, ideophones

with pejorative roles are adjectives. In Tarok, ideophones do not form a grammatical category

because they can function as adjectives (Blench, in press b and Blench et al. forthcoming),

nouns, adverbs (Longtau, 2008 and Longtau et al. in progress) and mimicry. Adverbs in Tarok

are morphologically marked through particles or nothing in this manner:

ŋga - mmɨŋ nɨmo (a) caŋ ŋga nzəm va tə. Literally, gruel certain sweet of super this it.

„The gruel is indeed very sweet‟. [Could be figuratively the opposite.]

p- - mmɨŋ nɨmo (a) caŋ pə ɗat. Literally, gruel certain sweet of undoubtedly.

„The gruel is indeed very sweet‟. [Very certain.]

tok mmɨŋ və a na kə pa cwat. Literally, fetch the gruel it for him like that anyhow.

The gruel is not fit for sharing, but give him all the same.

ø - mmɨŋ nɨmo (a) caŋ nzwaŋ. Literally, gruel certain (it) sweet straight.

„The gruel is just sweet.‟ [No need to commend nor condemn, but sit on the fence in the

assessment. This may be considered adjectival.]

mmami kə nrən kə na ncwatcwat. Literally, I am rebuking with him truly.

I am seriously rebuking him.

uyen va ga la a na ncwatcwat. Literally, child that went told to him truly.

The boy took the errand to him without any hesitation.

rən kə na kə mɓəŋ-wu. Literally, rebuke with him with bad-face.

Rebuke him with every seriousness.

nnap njem caŋ kiɗyar. Literally, issue mine sweet much.

My case is very sweet.

A few examples where symbolism is morphologically marked in addition to the fact that the

adverb taken together with the corresponding verb is a segment with a heightened meaning will

suffice in illustrating the orthographic challenges in Table 5.

Table 5 – Samples of Tarok ideophones

Ideophonic

form

Gloss Example or comment Form in current

orthography

gbararara describes

dropping of tears mbɨl vaŋ a na (pə)

gbararara Tears full his eyes and

dropped gbararara.

gbararara

4 A full description of Tarok ideophones is not intended here but a mere highlight needed for discussion of orthographic and translation challenges.

bɨrrr „up suddenly‟ The r- in the sudden flight of a bird

carries the meaning of „out of the reach

of capture.‟

bɨr but cf. with bɨr

‘taking a sip of a

drink once‟

gbəkəkə „longish‟ long (mouth) as in the insult gbəkəkə

anuŋ

gbəkəkə

gbəmomo lengthy/unending Nnap nnɨmmo pə gbəmomo kang m

pa anuŋ kə ɗo? If I had known the

matter would go on so long, I would not

have agreed to get involved.

gbəmomo

ɓaaa widely ɓu ɓaaaa ka atam ta ic ɨŋcɨŋ i tar kə.

Literally, you ɓaaa with mouth that

fly will enter in. The meaning is:

please close your mouth and be

decent about yawning!

ɓa

gbàà at once uTali klak ishi uyen ka awo gbàà.

„Tali broke the boy‟s head with his

hand gbàà! Implying very badly.

This can be restated for greater

impact thus:

uTali gbàà ka awo uyen ki ishi.

gbà

gbùù describes the

sound of s.t.

falling

Izə ru nnàp pə gbuu e? „What has

fallen, gbuu!‟

gbù

shúú describes s.t.

dropping in

small pieces

ivər pəng pə shúú te a kəp. The rain

fell shuu and then stopped.

doo↘ implies that

everyone

participates in an

action

Onəm kəm nnàp-nla aPonzhi pə doo!

„Everyone accepted what the chief had

to say.‟

do

kwacalak „shapeless‟ (mid-

toned) Kwacalak ashar le asəl a mi. Clear

from the road, you shapeless legged.

The insult in this tone is mild and at

the level of mere annoyance.

kwacalak

kwacalak „shapeless‟ Kwacalak ashar le as əl a mi. Clear

from the road, you shapeless legged

(or you will be in trouble).

The insult in this tone is high and at

the level of frustration.

kwacalak

kwacalak „shapeless‟ ashar kwacalak kə na. The legs are shapelessly kwacalak

with him.

In this description the verb and

particle that would have made the

ideophone adverbial have been

omitted for greater emotive impact

of pity for the person.

kwacalak

AKwacalak „shapeless‟ AKwacalak „You Mr. Kwacalak‟.

This is the worst form of insult by a

bully.

AKwacalak

4. Implications for orthography development practices

The columns showing current orthographic practices (with a slight adaptation of diacritics)

illustrate the practical challenges in the writing of the longish consonants and vowels as well as

the marking of the drifting tone. The writing style of the draft Tarok dictionary is proactive and

treats symbolism systematically without leaving to haphazard intuitive choices. The drifting tone

is marked in the head entry but in the illustrative sentence the repetition of the vowel suffices.

However, outside the draft dictionary morphemes with symbolic meaning are written without the

modifications hoping that the reader will make the necessary adjustments. Lengthening of

consonants and vowels to show emotional meaning should be marked appropriately in a formal

way. Leaving such matters to intuition is not satisfactory. The Tarok Dictionary has not left

sound symbolism for users to work out but captures the language in full.

The implication for an effective orthography is that no additional symbols should be created but

only appropriate rules should be made. In several of the examples above, emotional and other

meanings that can be captured in concise forms only through sound devices have been alluded to

and it is important for them to be marked.

5. Implications for translation practices

A cursory look at the Tarok New Testament and the draft Old Testament, ideophones that are

introduced by adverbial particles are written. However, onomatopoeic forms are left out

completely under the pretext that Scripture should have „pure‟ language only. That is completely

erroneous. Matthew 7:27 in the New Living Translation the phrase „mighty crash‟ is apt in

describing the fall. In the Tarok New Testament it is rendered “shin nshin mɓanɓan” „fall falling

bad‟. An emotive rendering that would have captured the symbolism is “a ru pə rup” „it fell rup‟.

Similarly in John 3:19 the emotive content would have been heightened if the ideophonic adverb

(pe) nkaci were added. There are many more examples.

The implication is that the translation lacks luster, naturalness and communicative impact.

6. Conclusion

It has been shown that phonosemantic segments are quite widespread in Tarok and the lack of its

full usage in written texts can lead to unnatural forms of the language. When we employ the

phonic principle of writing a language, its phonemes should be deployed fully to writing every

sound that carries meaning no matter how awkward the image of the word may be. Consigning

them to the verbal form of the language only will be leaving out a significant part of a lingual

heritage. Fortunately, writers of languages of southern Nigeria have no qualms about ideophones

and onomatopoeia.

References

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Awoyale, Yiwo. la 1989. Reduplication and the status of ideophones in Yoruba. Journal of West African

Languages, XIX:15-34.

Blench, R.M. 2010. The Sensory World: Ideophones in Africa and elsewhere. In: Perception of the

Invisible: religion, historical semantics and the role of perceptive verbs. Sprache und Geschichte

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