Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the formation of words by imitating the sounds of the surrounding reality, or the selection of such words and sound-combinations that by their sound reproduce natural noises, the voices of animals, the sounds of phenomena: "rustle," "murmur," "cuckoo," "warble." Onomatopoeia rests on the natural link between the sound of a word and the sound it denotes, and therefore belongs to the most ancient manifestations of word-creation. In literature onomatopoeia reinforces the vividness and sensory concreteness of an image, allowing the reader not only to imagine but to "hear" the depicted. In poetry onomatopoeia is closely combined with alliteration and assonance, forming a sound-writing that imitates phenomena of reality. Onomatopoeia is an important means of phonetic imagery and a subject of study for phonosemantics and stylistics.