Angela Bartens. Ideophones and sound symbolism in Atlantic creoles. (Suomalaisen Tiedekatemian Toimituksia/Annales Academiae Scientiarium Fennicae. Sarja-series Humaniora, 40.) Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and Finnish Society of Science and Letters, 2000. Pp. 198.

Abstract

The central claim of Ideophones and sound symbolism in Atlantic creoles is that ideophones constitute a relevant category in Atlantic creoles, and that they show both functional and substantial correspondences with ideophones in African languages. The book consists of two main parts: a critical review of the literature on ideophones (Introduction; Chap. 1, “Previous treatment of ideophones and sound symbolism in the literature”; Chap. 2, “Characterization of ideophones: towards a cross-linguistic prototype”), and an etymological database of ideophones in the Atlantic creoles (Chap. 3, “The use of ideophone in the Atlantic creoles and their tentative etymologies”). Two appendices present data sources and the approximate number of ideophones in some languages. The study is based on the available literature, supplemented by data on Atlantic creoles, African languages, European languages, and two Asian languages that was obtained either from specialists on certain languages or from first-language speakers.