Языки стран Дальнего Востока, Юго-Восточной Азии и Западной Африки

28 Языки Стран Дальнего Востока, Юго-Восточной Азии и Западной Африки | LESEWA-XIII demonstrate that sound-symbolic phenomena in the Japanese language constitute a linguistic system with rigid phonological constraints and semantic consistencies” ( Hamano 1998: 6). The author re-opens the ostensibly settled linguistic discussion about the arbitrariness of the relation between sound and meaning (De Saussure 1959), also: Hockett (1960) and Hockett C. F. and R. Ascher 1964), returning to the issue of iconicity, that is — the property of symbols to replicate physical features of the objects that they represent (Hamano 1998: 4). By giving a plethora of telling examples Hamano challenges the tenet of modern linguistics that the relation between sound and meaning is arbitrary (Saussure 1916). Let us return to the most intriguing onomatopoeic subgroup — that of gitaigo , which are not imitative of sounds but, as Kindaichi (Kindaichi 1978) puts it, they are “ mode -mimicking” words.Hamano also makes the point that the sound-symbolism of both Japanese and Korean is very systematic (Hamano 1998: 5) and that the mimetic words used in these languages are not mere collections of curious oddities but form coherent systems (Hamano 1998: 217). According to her, such sound-symbolic systems do not consist of haphazard sound-mimicking, but of highly structured properties ( Hamano 1998: 6). She states: “Vowels in general control the semantic dimension of the shape of an object and the size of the affected area” (Hamano 1998: 100). Hamano continues her reasoning listing the vowels and their iconic properties. They are said to symbolize: /i/ — straightness; high-pitched sound; /u/ — small protruded opening; /o/ — small area; inconspiciousness; modestness; /a/ — large area; totality of the object; conspiciousness; /e/ — vulgarity. The following example sentences will illustrate the sound- symbolic properties of Japanese vowels: /a/ mizuwogabu-gabunomu ‘gulp down (a lot of) water’ /i/ atamani pin tokonai ‘does not ring the bell’ /u/ kusu-kusuwarau ‘giggle, chuckle’ /o/ koro-koro korogaru ‘tumble down rolling’ /e/ hera-hera warau ‘smirk, leer’ Here I will discuss only the third example sentence, as I regard it as being clearly indicative that in speech the way of sound production reflects what words semantically express. The initial consonant in kusu-kusu, /k/, is produced by a fricative sound on the velum and indicates “friction on a hard