On the patterning of sound imitation by onomatopoeia in Slovak

Summary This paper presents an experiment with onomatopoeia formation. Fifty-one Slovak participants were asked to imitate ten sound events of various frequencies by writing down onomatopoeic words using the letters of the Slovak alphabet. The purpose of the experiment was to examine the role of image iconicity in producing new onomatopoeias. Image iconicity is expected to be manifested in the participants’ agreement on the form of the proposed onomatopoeias and, therefore, in the possibility of establishing onomatopoeic patterns. The pattern structure was determined by the realization of five characteristics: initial position, final position, transition, lengthening, and repetition. In addition, the established patterns make it possible to examine the role of sound-symbolism, particularly phonesthemes in the formation of onomatopoeias.