http://ideophone.org/w00t-chosen-word-of-2007/ Sounding out ideas on African languages, sound symbolism, and expressivity Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:40:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://ideophone.org/w00t-chosen-word-of-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-4 mark Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:29:10 +0000 http://ideophone.org/w00t-chosen-word-of-2007/#comment-4 Ah, that helps! See, never try to bind primal screams with morphology. They lose their power. Ah, that helps! See, never try to bind primal screams with morphology. They lose their power.

]]> http://ideophone.org/w00t-chosen-word-of-2007/comment-page-1/#comment-3 language hat Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:05:20 +0000 http://ideophone.org/w00t-chosen-word-of-2007/#comment-3 Heh, it turns out (consulting the <abbr title="Oxford English Dictionary">OED</abbr>) that there actually is an adjective yaupish/yawpish, meaning 'hungry' (1835 D. WEBSTER <em>Paisley Fair in Harp of Renfrewshire</em> Ser. II. 153 "I'm e'en growing yawpish, We maun hae some buns and some ale"), but I was just being silly and adding an -ish ending onto <em>yawp</em> 'harsh cry, as of a bird,' famously used by Walt Whitman in <em>Leaves of Grass</em>: "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." Heh, it turns out (consulting the OED) that there actually is an adjective yaupish/yawpish, meaning ‘hungry’ (1835 D. WEBSTER Paisley Fair in Harp of Renfrewshire Ser. II. 153 “I’m e’en growing yawpish, We maun hae some buns and some ale”), but I was just being silly and adding an -ish ending onto yawp ‘harsh cry, as of a bird,’ famously used by Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass: “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

]]>