The sound symbolism of food: the frequency of initial/PA-/in words for (staple) food
Abstract: In different languages around the world, morphemes representing the (cooked form of) staple food or food in general tend to begin with a [+labial] phoneme followed by a [+low] phoneme (/pa-/,/ma-/,/fa-/,/wa-/, etc.). This article provides evidence for this phonological similarity by analyzing 66 sample languages’ morphemes representing the staple food within the society where each language is spoken. About a fourth of the morphemes referring to staple food begin with a [+labial] first phoneme followed by a [+low] second phoneme, which is a much higher proportion compared to another list of basic morphemes in the same 66 languages. I further argue that the motivation for this crosslinguistic tendency is the iconic association between the mouth-opening gesture and the concept of eating.
- Location
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
- Extent
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Online-Ressource
- Language
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Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
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The sound symbolism of food: the frequency of initial/PA-/in words for (staple) food ; volume:61 ; number:1 ; year:2023 ; pages:33-46 ; extent:14
Linguistics ; 61, Heft 1 (2023), 33-46 (gesamt 14)
- Creator
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Joo, Ian
- DOI
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10.1515/ling-2021-0127
- URN
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urn:nbn:de:101:1-2023011413051242093747
- Rights
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Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
- Last update
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15.08.2025, 7:29 AM CEST
Data provider
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Associated
- Joo, Ian
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