Things that are awesome from linguistics: Phonoesthemes
Theoretically speaking, phonesthemes are pretty controversial in linguistics, and so I don’t incriminate myself of any particular academic biases, I’ll provide the most innocuous definition I can: Phonesthemes are nonmorophological “sound-symbolic” phonemes and phoneme clusters.
Here are four examples:
- Words that begin with “sn” and involve something “nose-y”: snout, snack, sniff, snore, snort, snot, snivel, sneeze, sneer, snuff, snarl, snicker, snigger, sniffle, sneer, snide, snooty.
- What’s important is that “sn” is meaningless by itself, but can connote something vaguely nasal.
- Words that begin with “sl” and involve semi-liquid things: slime, slough, slop, slobber, slush, sludge, slosh, slurry, sluice.
- Words that end in “ack” and involve abrupt sounds: crack, brack, clack, snack, smack, thwack, quack, whack, flack
- Words that begin with “tw” and involve twisting or small sounds: twitter, twiddle, tweedle, twang, twingle-twangle, tweet, twattle, twittle, twitch, twick, twinge, twinkle, twist, twirl, tweak, twiddle, twittle-twattle, twead, twit
Many more examples are available at the Dictionary of English Phonesthemes.
