Onomatopoeia 擬聲詞 (拟声词)

nǐshēngcí · from Greek

What is onomatopoeia?

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it describes, like buzz, Mandarin 汪汪 wāngwāng (woof) or Japanese ワンワン wanwan.

Every language hears animals and noises differently, so onomatopoeia is surprisingly language-specific. Japanese and Korean have exceptionally large, systematic sets of sound and manner words. Chinese onomatopoeia often uses reduplication and appears constantly in comics and online chat.

Examples

汪汪 wāngwāng (woof); 哈哈 hāhā (haha); 喵 miāo (miaow); ワンワン wanwan (woof); 멍멍 meongmeong (woof); Thai 555 (hahaha, ห้า hâa)

Kungfucius says: A dog says woof in English, wāngwāng in Chinese and meongmeong in Korean. The dog has not been consulted.