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Ketevani Lomidze, Ilia State University, GeorgiaAbstract
Onomatopoeias defy the general linguistic belief that words are arbitrary and reflect universal and language-specific characteristics across languages. Cross-linguistically, it is yet to be discovered to what extent speakers of different languages can comprehend foreign onomatopoeias. This article aims to investigate the recognition process of sound-imitative words of English (Indo-European language of the West Germanic branch) in monolingual Georgian speakers (the Caucasian language family of the Kartvelian branch). Through a quantitative method, this research examines whether non-English Georgian speakers can identify the meaning of English onomatopoeias and discovers what kind of role Georgian L1 plays in comprehending English onomatopoeias. Hereby, a survey was conducted that involved 60 non-English Georgian participants who had to guess the meaning of animal kingdom, environment, humankind, and miscellaneous onomatopoeias via answering multiple-choice, linear scale rating and open-ended questions. The results of quantitative data disclosed that the absence of certain Georgian phonemes in English hinders the recognition process, while onomatopoeias involving shared phonological or morphological features were easily understood. The study discovers and emphasises universal and language-specific characteristics of onomatopoeias in the English and Georgian languages.
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Conference: PCAH2025Stream: Language
This paper is part of the PCAH2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Lomidze K. (2025) Recognition of Sound-Imitative Words: A Case Study of English and Georgian Languages ISSN: 2758-0970 The Paris Conference on Arts & Humanities 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 83-95) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0970.2025.8
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2758-0970.2025.8
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