A word that imitates the sound it names is onomatopoetic. Is there one translation of this into ASL, or two? Onomatopoetic doesn't seem to come from any root specifically meaning sound, so I can imagine it logically being translated for any mimetic word; but if one were trying to explain the origin of either a word or a sign one might want two distinct words. For that matter, my cursory Googling suggests that Korean has mimetic words but maybe not onomatopoetic words. ??.
T'other year I heard speaking, and he read a bit of (I assume) Going Postal, which has a lot of semaphores in it. His speech was being interpreted in sign, and the sign for 'semaphore' is delightful, not so much for its direct mimicry as for the flowing transitions between it and the surrounding signs. Pratchett noticed that the audience was staring behind him, and Pratchett stepped sideways and gestured the interpreter up and read more about semaphores, to admire. He may have thrown some other unlikely words in, just to see if they were good fits.
I still remember it not principally for the 'semaphore' joke but for Pratchett's good humor and happiness at sharing a stage. He seemed like a complete mensch.
So wrote clew in Word. | TrackBack