10 WINTER 2019 • POPSCI.COM by Arika Okrent / illustration by Valerio Pellegrini
sound
it out
STRING CHEESE BOOM! SPLAT! POW! CAN YOU HEAR
the difference? These words evoke three very
different sorts of collisions. It might seem
obvious that all languages have ways of rep-
resenting common noises, but linguists long
considered onomatopoeias— terms that spell
out the sound they name— to be something lessthan “real language.” In fact, some languages
have uniquely rich systems that go beyond basic
onomatopoeia to encode moods, experiences,
and visuals into delightfully specific words called
ideo phones. This network shows some of the
best, and how they overlap and interconnect
across many tongues from around the world.