Many of the sounds of the modern soundscape are new to history and as such to the human ear. Anthropophony has expanded greatly thanks to electromechanical and digital technology (e.g., motorised traffic, AC systems). Still, languages maintain their ability to refer to new environmental sounds; e.g., by onomatopoeia such as beeping, buzzing, rattling, etc. In order to investigate how sound imitation has evolved along these changes in the soundscape, I examined six urban sound sources (siren, car, fan, etc.) and identified twelve onomatopoeic verbs that language users use to imitate the sounds they make based on Finnish language corpus KORP v9. I then analysed the verbs in terms of etymology and usage contexts to shed light on the linguistic aspects of this adaptation. Broadly, the study showed that languages choose to recycle already existing verbs, by carrying out semantic shifts based on metaphoric extension and/or aural-affective resemblance, rather than creating new ones. 

Bálint János Kiss is a PhD candidate at Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design Budapest. The urban soundscape is at the core of his research and creative output. His original background is in the humanities.