{"id":18866,"date":"2020-05-30T18:57:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T16:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=18866"},"modified":"2021-03-18T18:43:27","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T17:43:27","slug":"italian-onomatopoeia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/italian-onomatopoeia\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Onomatopoeia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ciao a tutti!<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I want to explore the linguistic phenomenon of onomatopoeia,<\/strong>\u00a0which is the formation of a word from a sound associated with that word. It originates from the word\u00a0\u1f40\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03af\u03b1<\/em> in the Greek language which means ‘making or creating names’, and in English we use it to describe the unique words made to imitate sounds. In Italian, the word is onomatopea.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is commonly used to describe animal sounds, and in English some examples include woof, hiss, moo, quack,<\/em> oink,<\/em> and more. I am sure it comes to no surprise that onomatopoeia differ from language to language, so let’s look at some in Italian.<\/p>\n

Le api ronzano<\/em> – the bees buzz. (zzzzz)<\/em><\/p>\n

Gli uccelli cinguettano<\/em> – the birds chirp. (cip cip)<\/em><\/p>\n

I gatti miagolano<\/em> – the cats meow. (miao)<\/em><\/p>\n

Le mucche muggiscono<\/em> – the cows moo. (muuuuu)<\/em><\/p>\n

I corvi gracchiano<\/em> – the crows caw. (cra cra)<\/em><\/p>\n

I cani abbaiano<\/em> – the dogs bark (bau bau)<\/em><\/p>\n

I topi squittiscono<\/em> – the rats squeak. (squitt squitt)<\/em><\/p>\n

I serpenti sibilano<\/em> – the snakes hiss (zssssssss)<\/em><\/p>\n

For some fun, check out how to sound like a dog in 14 languages:<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image from Pixabay, CCO.<\/p><\/div>\n

English – woof<\/p>\n

Russian – gav<\/p>\n

French – ouaf<\/p>\n

Spanish – Guau<\/p>\n

Dutch – Waf<\/p>\n

Japanese – Wan<\/p>\n

Icelandic – Voff<\/p>\n

Romanian – Ham<\/p>\n

Italian – Bau<\/p>\n

Turkish – Hav<\/p>\n

Korean – Meong<\/p>\n

Persian – Vaagh<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some other examples of onomatopea\u00a0<\/em>include sounds you make while eating and drinking. In English we might see\u00a0chomp,\u00a0om nom nom<\/em>, slurp<\/em> or glug.\u00a0<\/em>In Italian, these sounds are written gnam gnam<\/em> and glu glu.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or some bodily functions:<\/p>\n

achoo – etci\u00fa <\/i>(to sneeze – starnutire<\/em>)<\/p>\n

burp – rutt <\/em>(to burp – ruttare<\/em>)<\/p>\n

zzz – ronf, zzz <\/em>(to snore – russare<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Or what if you hurt yourself in Italy? Well, you would stick out if you yelled ow<\/em>\u00a0or ouch.<\/em>\u00a0Instead Italians say ahia <\/i>or\u00a0ohi.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

What are some other onomatopea <\/em>you know in Italian? There are so many others and they are just another fascinating layer of learning another language and integrating into another culture. Write some examples below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Ciao a tutti! Today I want to explore the linguistic phenomenon of onomatopoeia,\u00a0which is the formation of a word from a sound associated with that word. It originates from the word\u00a0\u1f40\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c0\u03bf\u03b9\u03af\u03b1 in the Greek language which means ‘making or creating names’, and in English we use it to describe the unique words made to imitate…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":19493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[619],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18866","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italian-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t