Say it out loud, part 1
When I have to wait for late students (which is every day), I usually kill time by making lists. Here is a list of onomatopoeia in Spanish. Read them out loud, and remember to roll your Rs.
to lisp: cecear (pronounced with a soft Spanish th, a one-word joke)
to babble: balbucear
to whisper: susurrar
to grumble: refunfuñar*
to purr: ronronear
to hoot: ulular
to cackle: cacarear
to oink: gruñir
to twang: ganguear**
* don’t know if this is truly onomatopoeia, but I make the same sound when I grumble.
** referring to speech. Can’t you hear it?!
I know nothing—and I mean nothing—about linguistics. Which means I constantly have stupid questions about the subject, such as:
Is there any objective standard according to which we can say that one language is more onomatopoetic than another? Because it sure as hell seems to me that Spanish trumps English on that front (except for ‘oink’).
Also: What might it say about the cultures in or through or across or by which languages develop that one might be more onomatopoetic than another?
