Editing Onomatopoeia (section)

== Uses ==
{{Further|List of animal sounds}}
[[File:Kircher-musurgia-bird-song, chicken.jpg|thumb|According to ''[[Musurgia Universalis]]'' (1650), the hen makes "to to too", while chicks make "glo glo glo".]]
[[File:Noveltyitems.JPG|thumb|A bang flag gun, a [[novelty item]]]]

In the case of a frog croaking, the spelling may vary because different frog species around the world make different sounds: [[Ancient Greek]] {{Lang|grc|brekekekex koax koax}} (only in [[Aristophanes]]' comic play ''[[The Frogs]]'') probably for [[marsh frog]]s; English ''[[wikt:ribbit|ribbit]]'' for species of frog found in North America; English verb ''[[wikt:croak|croak]]'' for the [[common frog]].<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2000/5/00.05.11.x.html |title=Basic Reading of Sound Words-Onomatopoeia |publisher=Yale University |access-date=October 11, 2013}}</ref>

Some other very common English-language examples are ''[[hiccup]]'', ''zoom'', ''bang'', ''[[Beep (sound)|beep]]'', ''moo'', and ''splash''. Machines and their sounds are also often described with onomatopoeia: ''honk'' or ''beep-beep'' for the horn of an automobile, and ''vroom'' or ''brum'' for the internal combustion engine. In speaking of a mishap involving an audible [[electric arc|arcing]] of electricity, the word ''zap'' is often used (and its use has been extended to describe non-auditory effects of interference).

Human sounds sometimes provide instances of onomatopoeia, as when ''[[mwah]]'' is used to represent a kiss.<ref name="mwah_ocford">{{cite web| url = https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mwah| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161229171106/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mwah| url-status = dead| archive-date = December 29, 2016| title = English Oxford Living Dictionaries}}</ref>

For animal sounds, words like ''[[Quack (sound)#Communication|quack]]'' (duck), ''moo'' (cow), ''[[Bark (utterance)|bark]]'' or ''woof'' (dog), ''[[Roar (utterance)|roar]]'' (lion), ''[[meow]]''/''[[miaow]]'' or ''[[purr]]'' (cat), ''cluck'' (chicken) and ''baa'' (sheep) are typically used in English (both as nouns and as verbs).

Some languages flexibly integrate onomatopoeic words into their structure. This may evolve into a new word, up to the point that the process is no longer recognized as onomatopoeia. One example is the English word ''bleat'' for sheep noise: in [[medieval]] times it was pronounced approximately as ''blairt'' (but without an R-component), or ''blet'' with the vowel drawled, which more closely resembles a sheep noise than the modern pronunciation.

An example of the opposite case is ''[[cuckoo]]'', which, due to continuous familiarity with the bird noise down the centuries, has kept approximately the same pronunciation as in [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] times and its vowels have not changed as they have in the word ''furrow''.

''[[Verbum dicendi|Verba dicendi]]'' ('words of saying') are a method of integrating onomatopoeic words and [[ideophone]]s into grammar.

Sometimes, things are named from the sounds they make. In English, for example, there is the universal fastener which is named for the sound it makes: the [[zipper|zip]] (in the UK) or [[zipper]] (in the U.S.) Many birds are named after their calls, such as the [[bobwhite quail]], the [[weero]], the [[morepork]], the [[killdeer]], [[chickadee]]s and [[jay]]s, the [[common cuckoo|cuckoo]], the [[common chiffchaff|chiffchaff]], the [[whooping crane]], the [[whip-poor-will]], and the [[kookaburra]]. In [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and [[Malayalam]], the word for [[crow]] is {{Lang|ml|kākā}}. This practice is especially common in certain languages such as [[Māori language|Māori]], and so in names of animals borrowed from these languages.

=== Cross-cultural differences ===
Although a particular sound is heard similarly by people of different cultures, it is often expressed through the use of different phonetic strings in different languages. For example, the "''snip''"of a pair of scissors is ''{{lang|it|cri-cri}}'' in [[Italian language|Italian]],<ref name="Andersen 1998">{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Earl R. |title=A Grammar of Iconism |date=1998 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press |isbn=9780838637647 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2v1hv6oL9moC&pg=PA112}}</ref> ''{{lang|es|riqui-riqui}}'' in [[Spanish language|Spanish]],<ref name="Andersen 1998" /> ''{{lang|pt|terre-terre}}''<ref name="Andersen 1998" /> or ''{{lang|pt|treque-treque}}''{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], ''{{Transliteration|el|krits-krits}}'' in [[Modern Greek|modern]] [[Greek language|Greek]],<ref name="Andersen 1998" /> ''{{lang|sq|cëk-cëk}}'' in [[Albanian language|Albanian]],{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} and ''{{Transliteration|hi|kaṭr-kaṭr}}'' in [[Hindi]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}} Similarly, the "''honk''" of a car's horn is ''{{Transliteration|zh|ba-ba}}'' ([[Han characters|Han]]: {{lang|zh|叭叭}}) in [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], ''{{lang|fr|tut-tut}}'' in [[French language|French]], ''{{Transliteration|ja|pu-pu}}'' in [[Japanese language|Japanese]], ''{{Transliteration|ko|bbang-bbang}}'' in [[Korean language|Korean]], ''{{lang|no|bært-bært}}'' in [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], ''{{lang|pt|fom-fom}}'' in [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and ''{{Transliteration|vi|bim-bim}}'' in [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2019}}

=== Onomatopoeic effect without onomatopoeic words ===
An onomatopoeic effect can also be produced in a phrase or word string with the help of [[alliteration]] and [[literary consonance|consonance]] alone, without using any onomatopoeic words. The most famous example is the phrase ''"furrow followed free"'' in [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]''. The words "followed" and "free" are not onomatopoeic in themselves, but in conjunction with "furrow" they reproduce the sound of ripples following in the wake of a speeding ship. Similarly, alliteration has been used in the line ''"as the surf surged up the sun swept shore{{spaces}}..."'' to recreate the sound of breaking waves in the poem "I, She and the Sea".