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