Speech Sounds Describing Non-Speech Sounds?

William Martens Prepared for DECO1013 2010

A useful approach to sound design is based upon our ability to imitate vocally the sounds we want to design…

Using speech sounds to describing non-speech sounds?

Onomatopoetic words that imitate or suggest the source of the sound they are describing:

In some cultures this ability is more finely developed than others, e.g., Japanese ‘Giongo’ … and really well developed in the South Indian musical form termed ‘Konnakkol .’

It is a comprehensive language of rhythm which allows the composition, performance or communication of rhythms in any style or tradition of music from anywhere in the world. Many musicians from a variety of traditions around the world have found konnakol useful in their own musical practice, such as John McLaughlin who led the Mahavishnu Orchestra and has long been using konnakol as an aid to composing.

Konnakol (Tamil: !"ன$%&))

Konnakkol by Karnataka college of Percussion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgDg4uMnn10)

Onomatopoeia in Japanese Culture

Probably due to the codification of sound-words used in Japanese comics (manga), native speakers show surprising agreement on what sounds should be used to describe particular sounds.

Onomatopoeia are words that imitate or suggest the source of the sound they are describing.

Common occurrences include animal noises, such as "oink" or "meow" or "roar“ in English.

Of course, onomatopoeia are not the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic system of which they are part....

For example, the sound of a clock may be: tick tock in English tik tak in Dutch tic-tac in French

In contrast, in Japanese the clock sounds as: chi chi

There are more than 200 onomatopoeia in Japanese.

The words describing short- duration sounds can be classified into six types:

(A) Impact and vanishing quickly (B) Impact and reverberating (C) Double impact (bouncing ) (D) Multiple impact (intermittent ) (E) Destructive (crunching or snaping) (F) Frictional (rubbing or scratching)

•  (A) Impact and vanishing short-time sounds that have only one impact and vanish in very short time are expressed by the words such as `ko-n' and `pa-chi'. They have a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) form:

–  The first consonants are /k/,/g/,/t/,/d/,/p/,/b/. –  The vowels are /o/,/a/, and /i/, ordered in terms of increasing tonal brightness. –  The second consonants sounds as ‘ch,’ ‘sh,’ or ‘n,’ ordered in terms of

increasing duration or reverberation. •  (B) Impact and reverberating sound

–  The same type as (A), but with longer duration: `ka-a-n', `po-o-n', etc. •  (C) Double impact sound

–  Sounds of bouncing or mechanical move: `ka-ta', `go-to-n', etc. •  (D) Multiple impact sound

–  Intermittent sounds: `ka-ta-ta', `ko-to-ko-to', etc. •  (E) Destructive sounds

–  Sounds of crunching or snaping: `ka-ri', `pa-ki', etc. •  (F) Frictional sound

–  Sounds of rubbing or scratching: `gi', `kyu', etc.

The six types Japanese onomatopoeia describing short-duration sounds can be explained as follows: ぎおん 【擬音】

(imitative sounds)

比屋根 一雄

HIYANE, KAZUO 新情報処理開発機構

自律学習 MRI 研究室 Real World Computing Partnership

Autonomous Learning Lab (Mitsubishi Research Institute)

Hiyane (1997) Relationship between non-speech sounds and Japanese onomatopoeia

--chi --shi --n

ki-n Metalic impact (high)

ka-chi ka-shi ka-n Metalic impact (middle)

ko-chi ko-n Metalic impact (low), General impact

gi-n Metalic impact (high, voiced)

ga-chi ga-shi ga-n Metalic impact (middle, voiced)

go-chi go-n Metalic impact (low, voiced)

ta-n General impact (middle)

to-n General impact (low)

do-shi do-n General impact (very low)

bo-n General impact (very low)

zu-shi zu-n General impact (extremely low)

pi-chi pi-shi pi-n Bouncing (high)

pa-chi pa-shi pa-n Bouncing (middle, Explosion)

po-n Bouncing (low)

ba-chi ba-shi ba-n Strong impact, Explosion

linguistic analysis. linguistic analysis.

--chi --shi --n ki-n Metalic impact (high)

ka-chi ka-shi ka-n Metalic impact (middle) ko-chi ko-n Metalic impact (low), General impact

gi-n Metalic impact (high, voiced) ga-chi ga-shi ga-n Metalic impact (middle, voiced) go-chi go-n Metalic impact (low, voiced)

ta-n General impact (middle) to-n General impact (low)

do-shi do-n General impact (very low) bo-n General impact (very low)

zu-shi zu-n General impact (extremely low) pi-chi pi-shi pi-n Bouncing (high) pa-chi pa-shi pa-n Bouncing (middle, Explosion)

po-n Bouncing (low) ba-chi ba-shi ba-n Strong impact, Explosion

ぎおん 【擬音】 (imitative sounds)

William Martens (Review of studies done while at

University of Aizu, Japan)

5 ぎおん

ドン ボン トン ポン コン DON BON TON PON KON

5 “gion” BON Waveform with most responses

ドン ボン

トン

ポン コン

DON BON TON PON KON 3-category response

bon

A

pon

B

kon

C

bon

pon

bon

pon

pon

kon

pon

kon

Vowels and Impact Sounds?

In Japanese, there also are preferred vowel sounds used to describe impact sounds varying in pitch.