iUniverse Publishing presents Onomatopoea

Onomatopoeic words are words which sound like the noises they represent. Possibly the best examples are verbs describing the sounds that animals make, e.g., frogs croak, birds chirp and owls hoot. iUniverse will give examples of onomatopoeic words and tell you about a few songs which incorporate onomatopoea.

iUniverse examples of Onomatopoea:

Certain clusters of letters have sound associations in English:

-ash at the end of a word represents something quick and violent, e.g., smash, dash, crash, mash, clash and gash.

-ckle, -ggle, -zzle at the end of a word is the sound of something light and repeated, e.g., trickle crackle, tinkle, giggle, wriggle, sizzle and drizzle.

-cl at the beginning of a work can represent a sharp or metallic sound, e.g., click, clang, clank, clash, clink and clip-clop.

gr- at the beginning of a word, means that something is miserable, or unpleasant, e.g., groan, grumble, grumpy, grunt and growl.

sp- at the beginning is usually associated with water, other liquids or powders, e.g., splat, splash, spit split, splutter, spray, sprinkle and spurt.

wh- at the beginning of a word represents the sound of movement of or through the air, e.g., whistle, whirr, whizz, wheeze and whip.

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