Fonte: The mother tongue – English and how it got that way
by Bill Bryson (secondo me un eccezionale studioso ed osservatore della lingua inglese)
It is intriguing to see how other languages hear certain sounds – and how much better their onomatopoeic words often are. Dogs go ouâ-ouâ in France, bu-bu in Italy, mung-mung in Korea, wan-wan in Japan; a purring cat goes ron-ron in France, schnurr in Germany; a bottle being emptied goes gloup-gloup in China, tot-tot-to in Spain; a heartbeat is doogan–doogan in Korea, doki-doki in Japan; bells go bimbam in Germany, dindan in Spain. The Spanish word for whisper is sussurrar. How could it be anything else?
E’ curioso osservare come gli stessi versi di animali, suoni e rumori prodotti dall’uomo, trovino una ‘trascrizione linguistica’ cioè una parola onomatopeica differente e di spiccata efficacia espressiva che riflette la latititudine e quindi la cultura locale.
