(no subject)

[cosmic_llin]

Rich and I were talking about onomatopoeia.
He reckons that the word 'bowl' is onomatopoeic, because the rounded vowel suggests the roundness of a bowl, but I said that it isn't because a bowl doesn't actually make the sound 'bowl'.
Am I right? Is there another word for when words suggest a quality like that? I feel like I should know this...

Comments

[cadiliniel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's onomatopoeic, because like you say, a bowl doesn't make a sound that sounds like 'bowl'.

I'm not aware of anything that suggest something like he means, but I would think if there was one then the word would've been created specifically so that it has the sound to it. Seeing as bowl is (I assume) such an old word, I don't know if that would be applicable.

I don't know, though :)

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a very grey area indeed. I wonder if it's one of those areas in which English is deficient...? Sometimes we just don't have the words for describing certain things. Yet...

[deccaboo.livejournal.com]

'Bowl' is not onomatopoeic. The word 'bowl' means 'bowl' because it is the name of a thing, not because of the sound it makes, (unless he is talking about glass bowls which have a tendency to smash if dropped, which would bring about onomatopoeia). Onomatopoeia only happens with 'sound/action' words, like itch, screech, crash, splat, smash, rip, zip, stab, thud...

I have just had a squint at my old friend the etymology dictionary, and discovered that the verb 'bowl' comes from Latin, 'bulla' (bubble), via Old French, 'boule', and the rounded vowels are present here too, which suggests roundness.

I do know what Rich is getting at, but I can't remember the word for it :s All languages have examples of this, where vowels are used to indicate shape and/or size = wide/thin (long /i/ compared to short /i/), little/grand (short /i/, long /a/)...