Thursday, March 02, 2006

Favourite onomatopoeia

Clink, plink, plonk. When a word sounds like the action it describes, that’s onomatopoeia. Some languages are more rich in onomatopoeia than others. The Japanese go in for it in a big way. Doki doki, for example, describes the heart pounding quickly from excitement; zaa zaa is the sound of pouring rain.