Today we have a word that describes a word- onomatopoeia. It is a word whose pronunciation suggests its meaning. For example buzz, hiss or bang. It comes from the greek onomatopoiia meaning “coiner of names.”

Onomatopoeia is often used in music such as Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti or scat (a jazz style where meaningless syllables are sung to a melody). I will close today’s podcast with a little scat from Louis Armstrong.

Another entertaining use of onomatopoeia is the description of animal sounds. Particularly when you realize different languages use different sounds. Here in the US a dog may say bow wow, arf or ruf ruf & a rooster says cock-a-doodle-do. In France the rooster says cocorico and in Germany, Nicole feel free to correct my pronunciation, the rooster say kickeriki and the dog says wuff wuff.

You can find a more expansive list of animal onomatopoeia at http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/onomatopoeia/examples-and-uses-of-onomatopoeia.html.