Onomatopoeic proposal.

Onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound it describes e.g. ‘Crash’ , ‘Miaow’ etc. and as such are possibly the origins of spoken languages being the simplest form of communication – imitating an object to communicate meaning ( for instance in Chinese ‘Mao’ 猫 has become the word for a cat, based originally on it’s sound). Onomatopoeic words are some of the most recent additions to languages, incorporating direct imitations of the post industrial world, ‘Beep’, ‘Zap’, ‘squeak’…occasionally becoming nouns; ‘ratchet’, ‘Crank’ etc. Curiously onomatopoeic words vary considerably across the globe; different cultures seem to hear differently. Languages themselves once established obviously restrict and distort the ability to form ‘pure’ onomatopoeic words but cultural variations also play a part – in the same way that the perception of musical tone and harmony vary across cultures. As an experiment i propose a WIKI Onomatopoeia library which would allow anyone to describe their literal interpretation of sound – not the accepted cultural/linguistic form (e.g. ‘woof’ for a dog) but what the individual hears. This would form a living recording of audio interpretation and the cultural variations and distortions that occur in different regions.

As an example and a starting point for the project here’s an incomplete table of Onomatopoeic words in Chinese, Japanese (very keen on Onomatopoeia), Hindi and Arabic:

English	Chinese	Pinyin	Japanese	Japanese	Arabic	Hindi
Atishoo! (sneeze)			gohhon		–	–
Baa (of a sheep)	咩	miē	mee mee	メーメー	–	–
Bang	啪	pā			–	–
Bang	砰	pēng			–	–
Bang (as on a door)	嘭	pēng	ton ton	–	–	–
Bang or boom	轰	hōng			–	–
Bark (of a dog)	汪汪	wàngwàng	wan wan	わんわん	Howhow	b’AU-b’AU
Buzz	嗡嗡	wēngwēng
Chirp or squeak	吱吱	zhīzhī
Chuckle	咯咯	gēgē
Clack	呱嗒	gūdā
Click	咔哒	kādā
Click or snap	咯噔	gēdēng
Click or tick	哒哒, 嗒嗒	dādā
Cluck (of a chicken)	咕咕	gūgū	ku-ku-ku-ku
Crash or bang	哐	kuāng
Creak	嘎吱	gāzhī
Creak	咯吱	gēzhī
Gurgling sound	咕噜	gūlū
Ha ha (laughter)	哈哈	hāhā	ahaha	–	–	–
Heartbeat (excitement)		–	doki doki	どきどき	–	–
Heartbeat (nervousness)		–	hara hara	はらはら	–	–
Hee hee (laughter)	嘻嘻	xīxī
Heh heh (laughter)	嘿嘿	hāihāi
Hiss (of a snake)	咝	sī
Hiss, fizz	噗哧	pūchī
Huh huh (chuckle)	呵呵	hēhē
Hum	哼哼	hēngheng
Meow (of a cat or kitten)	咪咪	mīmī			nownow
Meow (of a cat)	喵	miāo	nyaa nyaa	ニャーニャー	–	myAAUU
Moo (of a cow)	哞	moū	mou-mou	もうもう	ma ma	ba:N ba:N
Patter (as of rain)	稀里哗啦	xīlǐhuālā	zaa zaa	ざあざあ	–	–
Quack (of a duck) or croak (of a frog)	呱呱	gūgū			couak couak	baak-baak-baak
Rattle or clatter	嗒	dādā
Roar (of a crowd)	哄	hōng
Rumble (e.g. an earthquake)	轰隆	hōnglōng
Sound of (small) bells; sound of jingling	叮当	dīngdāng			–	–
Sound of a big door closing	咣	guāng			–	–
Sound of a doorbell (ding dong)	叮咚	dīngdōng			–	–
Sound of a heavy object falling into water	噗嗵	pūtōng			–	–
Sound of a large heavy object rolling	咕隆	gūlōng			–	–
Sound of a small bell (ding)	叮	dīng			–	–
Sound of birds chirping	叽叽喳喳	jījichāchā	piyo piyo	–	–	–
Sound of breaking or snapping	咔嚓	kāchā			–	–
Sound of crashing or rustling	哗啦	huālā			–	–
Sound of dripping water	嘀嗒	dīda	bisho bisho	びしょびしょ	–	–
Sound of slurping or snoring	稀里呼噜	xīlǐhūlū			–	–
Sound of trickling down	噗噜噜	pūlūlū	poro poro		–	–
Sound of water flowing	哗哗	huāhuā			tush	–
Splash (water)			pocha pocha		–	–
Squeak or creak	咿咿呀呀	yīyīyāyā	mishi mishi		–	–
Thud	噗咚	pūdōng			–	–
Thump or thud	噔	dēng			–	–
Thump, thud, or plop	咕咚	gūdōng			–	–
Whisper or murmur	唧唧咕咕	jījigūgū			ghamghama غمغم	–
Whoosh	咻	xiū			–	–

Musical Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia also occurs in music. In the Gamelan tradition, each note is given a ‘sound word’ which describes the pitch (and tone) of the note and the instruments themselves are strongly Onomatopoeic; Ceng-Ceng (a small cymbal instrument giving a clashing, shimmering tone), ‘Gong’ (deep resonant large metallic sound), ‘Kempli’ (a pot-gong that gives a metronomic beat), ‘Suling’ (a vertical reed flute). In India the Tabla has it’s own ‘language’, as system of notation and mnemonic learning called ‘Bol’ (‘bolna’ to speak), each stroke or sound of the drum has a corresponding onomatopoeic word which builds up into phrases, sentences and entire compositions:

Basic North Indian Tabla Bols:

“GE”; Bass drum, resonant stroke, played with the finger tips. The wrist bends the pitch of the drum.

“KE”; Bass drum closed stroke, played with the whole hand flat

“TE”; Treble drum closed sound with flat fingers. Staccatto

“NA”; Treble drum, edge rim sound with index finger; Characteristic ringing tone of Tabla.

“TIN”; Treble drum, inner rim sound with index finger; Similar to na but with slightly more bass qualities.

“THUN”; Open resonant sound on treble drum

“TI”; Second finger on treble drum, third and fourth fingers down, index finger raised. Soft version of TE.

“NE”; Ring finger on edge of treble drum

Similarly Japanese Taiko Drumming has it’s own spoken system ‘Kuchi shōga’ (口唱歌):

Taiko	Shimedaiko	Atarigane, Canon	Meaning & Musical Value
Don (Kon)	Ten	Chan	A single loud beat to the center (hara) of the drum. The left hand on a taiko is sometimes called “kon.” This could be considered the equivalent of a quarter note; but could also be a half note, etc..
Do (Ko, Ro)	Te (Ke, Re)	Chi (Ki)	A single firm beat to the hara, but with a value 1/2 that of “don” (i.e.: twice as fast). The left is sometimes called “ko” or “ke.” This would be an eighth note, if “don” is a quarter note.
DoKo	TeKe	ChiKi	2 Fast beats of equal sound, and power. This would be the equivalent of 2 eighth notes.
DoRo	TeRe	ChiRi	2 Fast beats, but with a slight “rolling” feel to the beats. Played “right, left.”
Tsu	Tsu	Tsu	A note played softly. The value of the note is variable.
TsuKu	TsuKu	TsuKu	2 Fast beats played softly (the left hand is “ku”).
Ka (Ta)	Ka	n/a	A beat played on the edge of the drum (fuchi), sometimes on the body (ko). The left hand is sometimes notated as “ta.”
KaRa	KaRa*	n/a	2 Fast beats played on the fuchi, with a slight “rolling” feel to the beats. Played “right, left.”
Su	Su	Su	A rest. The value of the rest is variable, but usually it is one beat of the pulse of the meter.
Zu	Zu	n/a	Another term for a soft beat, sometimes played with a slight “drag” to the beat or used for notating a triplet.

This tradition blurs into ‘Solfege’ a musical notation tradition based on words representing pitch. In Europe this takes the octave form of “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti” (originally based on the Arabic alphabet), In India as “Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa” known as Sargam. A similar system called ‘Canntaireachd’ (pronounced “cownterochk”) is used in Celtic culture to teach bagpipe music:

Canntaireachd example:

“hin-o tra-o ho dro, hio-dro ro-din hio din, hin-to dare-a che-bendre-o”

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Sources

Chinese onomatopeia http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/vocab/onomatopeia/

Tabla Bols http://www.chandrakantha.com/tablasite/bsicbols.htm

“language of the tabla”: http://www.sandip-tabla.com/tabla_pages/tabla_language.html

“Sargam notation”: http://ragapedia.com/raga/composition/list

“Japanese Sound effects and what they mean” http://www.oop-ack.com/manga/soundfx.html