Subject: summary : vowels and sound symbolism

summary : vowels and sound symbolism two weeks ago i circulated a message on the list asking for information on languages with sound-symbolic vowel hierarchies . what prompted this message was a description i came across of the longzhou dialect of the zhuang language spoken in guangxi province in southwestern china * . the language had a vowel hierarchy in following order i < e < a < o < u / w ( unrounded " u " ) which is manifest in the verbs , adjectives and measures of the language : the higher up on the hierarchy the vowel , the greater the magnitude or the intensity of the word . for example , ( 1 ) measures 1 . ni : p7 tsi3 ( a small stack of paper ) ne : p7 tsi3 ( a big stack of paper ) 2 . je : m1 kw1 ( a tiny pinch of salt ) ja : m1 kw1 ( a big handful of salt ) 3 . ki : n5 mai4 ( a tiny branch ) kw : n5 mai4 ( a big branch ) ( 2 ) verbs 1 . di : u1 ( to pry using a small tool ) da : u1 ( to pry using a large tool ) 2 . je : t7 ( a small object bouncing ) ja : t7 ( a large object bouncing ) 3 . ve : t7 ( to dig using a small tool ) va : t7 ( to dig using a large tool ) ( 3 ) adjectives 1 . ? e : u3 ( to bend or break ) ? e : u3 bje : p8 bje : p8 ( to break silently ) ? e : u3 bja : p8 bja : p8 ( to break , but slightly louder than the first ) ? e : u3 bjo : p8 bjo : p8 ( to break loudly ) ? e : u3 bju : p8 bju : p8 ( to break very loudly ) 2 . lai1 ( to flow ) lai1 se2 se2 ( to flow softly ) lai1 sa2 sa2 ( to flow , but slightly louder than the first ) lai1 so2 so2 ( to flow loudly ) lai1 su2 su2 ( to flow very loudly ) 3 . hau3 ( the weather being warm ) hau3 je : m5 ( the weather being slightly warm ) hau3 jo : m5 ( the weather being very warm ) hau3 ju : m5 ( the weather being extremely warm ) i asked if there were other languages that had similar mechanisms , and here are the replies . my thanks to jan lindstrom , stephen p . spackman , hiroshi hanara , bruce a . connell , anne gilman , dirk elzinga , and mark huber . * xie , zhiming . 1983 . " longzhou zhuangyu de yuanyin jiaoti " ( vowel alternations in the zhuang language of longzhou ) . yuyan yanjiu 5 : 212-218 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the correspondence to your system is by no means discrete , but there are similar vowel hierarchies or ordering in japanese onomatopoeic words that describe natural sound , repetition and number , magnitude , and perceived sizes . generally one can think of a continuum of the sort below , having general attributes as indicated : / i / / e / / a / / o / / u / < - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > small , sharp , light large , blunt , heavy , intense ( / u / is phonetically an unrounded high mid / back vowel ) . i recall a discussion on sound symbolism / onomatopoeia in japanese in _ dictionary of basic japanese grammar _ ( japan times , tokyo , 1987 ? ) by makino , seiichi and tsutsui , michio . the book was intended for learners of japanese but the discussion on onomatopoeia toward the end of the book may still be useful . hiroshi nara associate professor japanese language eall , university of pittsburgh pittsburgh , pa 15260 usa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . wasco chinookan evidently has a diminuitive morpheme with several degrees of intensity , varying according to consonant qualities ( there may be two axes , actually ; at least one goes : ejective-voiced - unvoiced - labialized or something - - i do n't have the paper in front of me , pardon factual errors ! ) . this phenomenon also involves vowel alternation . the paper is by michael silverstein and it came out in : title : sound symbolism / edited by leanne hinton , johanna nichols , and john j . ohala . published : cambridge ( england ) ; new york : cambridge university press , 1994 . description : x , 373 p . : ill . ; 24 cm . notes : includes bibliographical references and index . subjects : sound symbolism other authors : hinton , leanne nichols , johanna ohala , john j . isbn : 0521452198 oclc number : 29027865 thought i would toss the idea in the hopper . . . anne gilman ( grad student , ut austin ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i do n't know any parallel examples , but in ibibio you can lengthen the vowel to show increasing duration or repetition of an action . ( it 's actually a bit more complicated than that . ) meanwhile i suggest you check a paper by ohala , ' the ethiological use of pitch ' ( i think ) , which appeared in phonetica in the early ' 80s ( again , i think ) . he has done other work on sound symbolism , including a recent book ( hinton , nichols , ohala , eds ) under that name . actually there are two by ohala , both in phonetica , one in 1983 , one in 1984 . . . in yoruba , rugudu ( hhh ) 's mall and spherical ( as buttocks ) ' vs rogodo ( hhh ) ' large and round ( as yams ) ' . if i understood your posting this fits in your ( i . e . the longzhou ) hierarchy . i came across it in child 's paper in the sound symbolism book , the original source is courtenay ( 1976 ) . nb both these words are ideophones in yoruba and there is no suggestion that these two words reflect a productive process , even among ideophones ( though i suspect no one has seriously checked out the possibility ) . dr . bruce a . connell oxford university . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . shoshoni , a uto - aztecan language spoken in the great basin of north america has something like this with demonstratives . there are two sets of prefixes which can be affixed to demonstrative stems ; the first set consists of an [ s ] followed by a vowel and has definite readings , while the second set consists of a bare vowel and has indefinite readings . these are : i ii gloss example si - i - near sit @ n ' this ' se - e - not quite so near set @ n ' this ' sa - a - far , but in sight sat @ n ' that ' su - u - not in sight , far sut @ n ' that ' in addition , there is another prefix which makes no distinction as to proximity , ma - . the forgoing information is taken from a grammatical sketch of shoshoni by the late wick miller , as well as my own field experience with the language . dirk elzinga university of arizona elzinga @ aruba . ccit . arizona . edu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . you might want to look at my book for the vector space of vowels . the ordering above is almost a perfect match for a hilbert curve that follows the vowels at the corners of the ordinal vowel cube : hubey , h . m . ( 1994 ) mathematical and computational linguistics , mir domu tvoemu , moscow , russia , isbn 5-87553 - 001 - 4 as in many other scientific fields , particular mathematical fields are used or have been shown via experience to be useful in linguistics and most books on linguistics do n't stray too far from these methods ; i . e . the formal language theory , graph theoretic , or logic . this book covers the area starting from the most basic phonetics / phonemics to morphology , syntax and historical linguistics . almost everything in the book is original and uses mathematics to model the phenomena . what is not original is covered in the appendices . even some original ideas can be found in the appendices . it 's comprehensive and introduces mathematical methods into linguistics in a very strong , natural and non-trivial way including ; differential equations , stochastic differential equations , catastrophe theory , fuzzy mathematics , entropy , various metric spaces , vector spaces for phonemes , orthogonal basis for speech sounds , and a natural orthogonal space for sonority , vowels , and even consonants , time-domain and frequency-domain relationships , dimensional analysis , partial differential equations and permutation matrices et cetera in addition to the usual binary arithmetic , and monoids , groups , rings , karnaugh maps , sets , et cetera . you can find a free copy of the book on my home page at http : / / www . smns . montclair . edu / ~ hubey or directly try ftp ' ing to amiga . montclair . edu the http is a much better way you can get a copy of the table of contents first . regards , mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
