echoism

English

Etymology

echo +‎ -ism

Noun

echoism (countable and uncountable, plural echoisms)

  1. The practice of creating words or language by imitating sounds from the environment.
    • 1999, Marcel Danesi; Paul Perron, Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook, page 139:
      One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions.
    • 2011, Karl Bühler, Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language:
      That is the simple account of the motivation for the phenomenon of sound symbolism or echoism.
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