Sound Symbolism in Igbo: A Magnus Approach
Keywords:
Sound Symbolism, Iconism, Clustering, OnomatopoeiaAbstract
Sound symbolism is the idea that the vocal sound or phonemes carry meaning in and of themselves. We do not know the similarities or dissimilarities between some languages in some aspects of sound symbolism (specifically, Igbo and English)? This study looks at Igbo sound symbolism using the three approaches of Magnus (Onomatopoeia, Iconism and Cluster). The model was first proposed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The findings of this paper show that sounds do not become words until a meaning has been put into them, and this meaning represents the thought of a people. Words with meaning are suitable to be conveyed symbolically in sound. Igbo Consonants do not have a tone in Igbo apart from “n” and “m” which are the only letters that can be written with accent marks. Consonants, is to make a sound in speech produced by a stoppage or partial stoppage of the breath; a speech sound that is not a vowel. Igbo is a kwa language of the Benue-Congo subfamily of the Volta-Congo and Atlantic-Congo branches of the Niger-Congo language.
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