Onomatopoeia: A Literary Device

Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia

Etymologically, the literary device of onomatopoeia has entered the English language from the Latin language. In Latin, it has come from Greecian terms onoma and poiein. Onoma means the name and poiein means to create or make. Therefore, it means creating sounds specific to titles or names. The term is in vogue in the English language since the 16^th century.

Grammatically, it is a noun. Different dictionaries state that it is an act of creating sounds for different specific things that are akin to those things.

Definition of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia

As a literary term, onomatopoeia means a process of creating sounds through words for specific animals that resemble those animals. For example, the bleating of lambs, the roaring of lions, and the braying of donkeys.

Common Examples of Literary Device of Onomatopoeia

1. Dogs bark.
2. Cellphones beep.
3. Bees buzz.
4. Leaves rustle.
5. Birds chirp.
6. Snakes hiss.
7. Alligators hiss.

Literary Examples of Onomatopoeia

Example # 1

From ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray

The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,

         The swallow twitt’ring from the straw-built shed,

The [rooster]’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, (word replace for offensive nuances)

         No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

These verses from Thomas Gray’s popular “Elegy” shows the use of the literary device of onomatopoeia in the third verse such as the clarion of a c*ck and echoing of a horn. The second line also shows the use of twitter with swallow though it is used with almost every other bird. This is a beautiful use of onomatopoeia.

Example # 2

These verses from Macbeth, a popular play by William Shakespeare, show how Shakespeare is adept in using the literary device, onomatopoeia. Here double, bubble, and its repeated use show that the use of onomatopoeia has created a unique musical quality.

Example # 3

From Tales of Childhood by Rold Dahl

Mr Coombes stood back and took up a firm stance with his legs well apart. I thought how small Thwaites’s bottom looked and how very tight it was. Mr Coombes had his eyes focused squarely upon it. He raised the cane high above his shoulder, and as he brought it down, it made a loud swishing sound, and then there was a crack like a pistol shot as it struck Thwaites’s bottom.
Little Thwaites seemed to lift about a foot into the air and he yelled ‘Ow-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w!’ and straightened up like elastic. ‘‘Arder!’ shrieked a voice from over in the corner.

These lines from Tales of Childhood by Dahl show the use of sounds. Arder and oww are sounds though they are meaningless and are not associated with anything specific. Yet their usage shows that they could become popular when associated with something specific as here with the emotions and mood of Little Thwaites. This is a good use of the literary device of onomatopoeia.

Example # 4

From Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

So her Mummy most carefully didn’t; and bright and early next morning Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound pictures, and when Taffy got up she saw Ya-las (water is ending or running out) chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank, outside the Cave.
‘Um,’ said Taffy. ‘These picture-sounds are rather a bother! Daddy’s just as good as come here himself and told me to get more water for Mummy to cook with.’ She went to the spring at the back of the house and filled the tank from a bark bucket, and then she ran down to the river and pulled her Daddy’s left ear—the one that belonged to her to pull when she was good.

Kipling, too, has used Ya-las and Um as specific sounds that are only associated with human beings in Just So Stories. The reason for this use of onomatopoeic sounds is that human beings are inventive and creative and can create and subsequently associate the sounds with specific acts.

Example # 5

From Animal Farm by George Orwell

And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into Beasts of England in tremendous unison. The cows lowed it, the dogs whined it, the sheep bleated it, the horses whinnied it, the ducks quacked it. They were so delighted with the song that they sang it right through five times in succession, and might have continued singing it all night if they had not been interrupted.

This passage occurs in Animal Farm, a phenomenal fable by George Orwell. Here Orwell has listed the sounds of all the animals such as the winning of the dogs and the bleating of sheep. These sounds show the skill of George Orwell in using the literray device of onomatopoeia.

How to Create Onomatopoeia

1. Check with the specific idea, thing, plant, or animal and think out about its specific sound.
2. If there is no specific sound, feel the sound and use your sense to create a new one.
3. Place the sound in a specific context.
4. Evaluate whether the sound makes sense in that context and could be used in other contexts, too.

Benefits of Using Onomatopoeia

1. It helps readers understand things, objects, and animals and their associated sounds.
2. It helps writers clearly define and present things and events.
3. It helps writers write distinct and beautiful descriptions.
4. It shows the dexterity of the writer in his craft.
5. There are no specific sounds for specific new things such as you could garr for grate or carr for screeching of a wood on the floor.

Literary Device of Onomatopoeia in Literary Theory

1. As far as literary theory is concerned, onomatopoeia is an integral part of descriptive and figurative language. Therefore, it is important to review and critique the role of the literary device of onomatopoeia in formalism, readers’ response theory, New Criticism, and psychoanalytic literary theory.
2. It is also important in indigenous critical theory as distinct sounds are different for each indigenous animal or object.
3. It is an integral part of postmodernism and postcolonialism when it comes to narratives of different cultures to mark the epistemological values of these sounds in native cultures.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary Of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Assaneo, María Florencia, Juan Ignacio Nichols, and Marcos Alberto Trevisan. ‘The Anatomy of Onomatopoeia.’ PloS one 6.12 (2011): e28317. Bredin, Hugh. ‘Onomatopoeia as a Figure and a Linguistic Principle.’ New Literary History 27.3 (1996): 555-569.