phenomimes and psychomimes

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Nepali, Korean and Japanese languages have many phenomimes and psychomimes.

In Lojban, the expressions parallel to them are accomplished with the Experimental cmavo tai'i and ci'oi.

Discussions

  • la xalbo:
    Could you attempt to explain that in a way that means something to people who don't speak any of those languages, and don't already know what you're talking about? "It's just like this feature you're never heard of in a language you don't know" is less than useful.
    • Phenomimes and psychomimes are used in similar ways to onomatopoeia. In contrast to onomatopoeia, they give respectively uttered expressions to phenomena and mental states that do NOT necessarily make a sound. Similarly to onomatopoeia, speakers of a language share meanings of certain phenomimes and psychomimes, while sometimes they invent one's peculiar phenomimes and psychomimes.
    • How do I invent a phenomime or a psychomime? Just like giving a piece of background music to a scene of a drama, call to mind a piece of sound suitable to a phenomenon or a mental state; convert it to a string of phonemes; in Lojban, utter it just after tai'i or ci'oi; that's it.
    • la guskant:
      It may happen that a distinction between a phenomime, a psychomime and an onomatopoeia is vague. In this case, use {tai'i}: it is defined as a broader term than ci'oi and sa'ei.
  • la lindar:
    Problem is, there are no neutral or Lojban-only onomatopoeia for things.
    • la guskant:
      That's right. However, it sometimes happens that even Japanese listeners don't understand the meanings of phemomimes, psychomimes and onomatopoeia used by a Japanese speaker. These words do not independently convey precise meanings to the listeners. If a speaker wants to reduce vagueness of the meanings of them, it is indispensable to accompany them with content words.