Onomatopoeia! where the words come sweeping 'cross the clang....

["Harding, George E." <GHarding@ACS2.FMARION.EDU>]

John C. had posted elsewhere:

>Modern Standard Tamil has a vast variety of these words,
>and uses the frame "saying X" to introduce them:

>1)      kaacu n.ang eNRu kiiz.ee vizuntatu
>        coin *clang* saying down fell
>        The coin fell down with a clang.

>is a fairly literal usage (note the SOV order).  The word
>"n.ang" is interesting for being phonologically bizarre:
>Tamil words do not ordinarily begin with a retroflex nasal,
>nor end with a velar nasal.  A less literal use is exhibited by:

>2)      avaN maNacu kuRukuRu eNRu mayankiNatu
>        mind his *throbbing-pulsing* saying was-confused
>        His mind was confused by guilt.

>where the term "kuRukuRu", literally denoting a throbbing-
>pulse sound, is transferred to mean "guilt".  There is a large
>dictionary of Tamil containing only ideophones.

Interesting.  Nevertheless, _n.ang_ and _kuRukuRu_ seem onomatopoeic since
the adverbial (?) _eNRu_ (=saying) appears to suggest a sound being
mimicked.  Is onomatopoeia a "subset" in ideophonology?

Eddy