ACEHNESE ONOMATOPOEIAS: INVESTIGATING, LISTING, AND INTERPRETING THEIR MEANINGS

Sound-imitating words, called onomatopoeia, presents in most of languages in the world including Acehnese language, one of traditional languages in Indonesia, in which a great deal of onomatopoeias exist in it due to its unique constructions of onomatopoeia. This research aims at finding out kinds of Acehnese onomatopoeias understood and spoken among native Acehnese people by using Pidie dialect. Thus, five people in the Pidie Jaya regency were sorted out to be the subject informants by actualizing purposive and snowball technique. Moreover, a descriptive qualitative method was manifested in the research by actualizing some instruments to get the data such as structured interviewing and documentation. Hence, all of the data were interpreted in words by listing, transcribing their phonetics orderly, as well as describing both their function and meaning. A three-step analysis – data reduction, data verification, and data display-- was employed to describe the data gathered.  Result of the research reveals that Acehnese Onomatopoeias covers a wide range of expressions in sound-imitating words which are categorized into three big classes; Phonomimes which includes auditory impressions of various imitative sounds of nature; Phenomimes -- mimetic words to describe objects’ condition and human’s activities; and Psychomimes – symbolizing psychological state or inner feelings. Still, most of Acehnese onomatopeic words are in forms of repetition and nasalization which seems to be more unique compared to other languages.


INTRODUCTION
Sound-imitating words, called onomatopoeia, are words whose sounds suggest their meaning (Fromkin, et. al, 2003). They exist in most of languages in the world but the numbers of them are different (Yamamoto, 1993). Japanese, for example, is onomatopoeia-rich language which possesses a relatively big number of onomatopoeic words compared to Indo-European languages (Hasada, 1994). The immense numbers of the Japanese sound-symbolism portray that they constitute fully permeate in daily speaking among communities and in literary works (Tamori & Schourup, 1999). Aliyeh and Zeinolabedin (2014) say that even though the number of onomatopoeias is different among different languages, they still mimic or resemble the same natural sounds.
In a linear fashion, Azwardi (2018) claims that Acehnese language, a part of local language in Indonesia, presents a great deal of onomatopoeias due to its construction uniqueness. The Acehnese onomatopoeic words -specifically in particular sound sequences -are unique and seem to relate to a certain concept or object. He, then, states that Acehnese people frequently speak several forms of onomatopoeias to name or address something related to sounds produced by humans, animals, natures, and things. For instance, some repetitive words ending with phonemes /-am-um/ such as in "kham-khum", "tam-tum", and "pham-phum" are all mimicry of noisy sounds coming from the particular objects, yet those words have different usage in utterances.
Acehnese speaker tends to use the onomatopoeic word "kham-khum" to give more powerful as well as stressful meaning to the sentence when someone is making noise by slamming the door forcefully. The sentence, solely, might be changed by "why are you slamming the door?" but the expression is not much vivid to portray the speaker's emotion. Accordingly, Zolfagharian & Ameri (2015) said that onomatopoeias are valuable ways to create vivid and actual sounds into readers or listeners imaginary as an attempt to put a powerful effect and sense of reality on the mood of the word.
Another example is "tam-tum" which refers to the meaning of bullets' repetitive sound in a war. The last one is "pham-phum" that means sound of something smashing continuously or the sound-imitation of an object which is hit by someone constantly. In brief, Acehnese people visibly prefer to say or name something directly by using the sounds resembled to it rather than referring it using another term (Azwardi, 2018).
In spite of the fact as stated above, research about Acehnese onomatopoeias are only a few as stated by Azwardi (2018); there are only two researches done by researchers. The first one is Abdul Gani Asyik who did his research entitled Bunyi Bahasa dalam Kata Tiruan Bunyi dalam Bahasa Aceh in 1978. The research discusses he phonological transcribing in Acehnese onomatopoeias-or in other words how to spell and pronounce the terms properly. After decades another researcher from Aceh -Azwardi-did another study about onomatopoeia in 2002 entitled Onomatopoeia Reduplikasi Bahasa Aceh. Through his study, he only grouped Acehnese Onomatopoeias into four categories which are much related to sound-symbolism (Phonomimes), they are natural sounds, animals' sounds, object sounds, and human sounds. The other two terms; Phenomimes and Psychomimes were not put in his research. In other words, the researchers did not find a comprehensive, detailed category of Acehnese Onomatopoeias in other researchers.
Hence, in accordance with the elaboration above, this research is concerned salient to be done as it is still limited in number and a comprehensible, detailed class of each Acehnese Onomatopoeias categorized properly is strongly needed to be done and classified. Hence, it is supposed to be a novelty research in Acehnese Onomatopoeia specifically.

Definition of Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is simply defined as a word that mimics the sound it names. It depicts one of the figures of speech or language features that imitates the natural sounds by words such as "crunch, gurgle, plunk, and splash" (Regot, 2015).
Similarly, Assaneo et al (2011) point out that onomatopoeia are considered unique linguistic condition because they relate to the objects they resemble to by mimicking sounds naturally. To be exact, sound symbolism constitutes a salient relationship between sounds and meanings in which the sounds likely possess link with sensory experience.
Although onomatopoeia is basically known as sound-symbolism that refer to the representation of sound by an imitation, onomatopoeia in every language, apparently, can also express and describe broader range starting from moods, emotions and actions (Yule, 1996). Similarly, Tamori and Schourup (1999) claim that onomatopoeia is not only recognized as words imitating sounds, but also words denoting humans' activities and psychological condition.
Onomatopoeia conveys a mental picture and giving a poetic sense to words, thus it is able to create a good imagination to listener or reader. For instance, in English, it is much more expressive to say "the wind howled, hissed, and whooshed" rather than "the wind blew." The expression of "blew" cannot heavenly and fully express the emotion lying within the expressions or utterances of the speaker, or in other words, the word "blew" cannot create a vivid situation, thus the utilization of onomatopoeic word in the sentence can empower and deliver an immense emotion to the sentence.
Onomatopoeic words are quite different among languages in the world both in their sounds and ranges. In English cock-a-doodle-doo is an example of onomatopoeic word whose meaning is associated with the crow of rooster, whereas in Bahasa Indonesia the rooster's crow is kukkuruyuk. Another is laid on its numbers where English, for instance, contains a small number of onomatopoeic words compared to Janapanese that possess approximately 2000 up to 4500 onomatopoeic words (Tamori and Schourup, as cited by Sugahara, 2010).
However, the function of the onomatopoeia in every language remains the same: to represent sounds, actions, emotions, and physical conditions of something. Also, the onomatopoeic-like words are utilized to describe phenomenon associated with feelings and figurative expressions about objects or concepts.
Like every language in the world, Acehnese language, the so-called Bahsa or Bahasa Aceh also possess lots of onomatopoeic words spoken by its natives. Some of Acehnese onomatopoeias are related to sounds derived from objects which could be animals, things, and so on. In Acehnese words such as ngèng-ngèng [ŋɛŋ-ŋɛŋ], and ku'uek [ku?ũə?] are all recognized as onomatopoeias which symbolize the sound-imitating of animal production.
The word ngèng-ngèng is literally translated as "buzz" coming from the sound movement of insects, especially mosquitoes flying near ears, as in the following sentence: (1) brat that su ngèng-ngèng nyamok malam nyoe the buzz of mosquitoes is quite loud tonight Later, the word "ku'uek" literally means "crow' of chickens or cock-a-doodledoo in English as shown in the sentence: (2) su ku'uek manok nyan ube raya that rooster's cock-a-doodle-doo is quite loud The last example is "tèp-tèp" which is associated with the sound of drop of water or pitter-patter in English and the word can be used in the sentence as follow : (3) lon dingÖ su tèp-tèp ie ujeun malam baroe I heard pitter-patter of raindrops last night Kinds and Functions of Onomatopoeia Shibatani (1990) and Martin (1975), as cited in Hasada (1994) categorize onomatopoeia into three categories. The first category is called Phonomimes, which exclusively imitate various sounds produced and derived from nature such as sound of animals, things or objects, and humans. Phenomimes come as the second category which depict manner of action or describe traits, appearances, states, situations, and conditions. The last is Psychomimes which symbolize psychological states, bodily feelings, and inner feelings. Moreover, Phenomimes and Psychomimes are frequently denoted as mimetic words, while Phonomimes are called soundonomatopoeia or sound-symbolism.
Indeed, Acehnese's daily speaking uses numerous onomatopoeias to mimic various sounds, to describe gestures, and to symbolize physical state or emotions.
Likewise in Acehnese language, sound-onomatopoeias and mimetic words are abundant. As in the above examples (1), (2), and (3) are all grouped into Phonomimes since they are imitative sounds. Later, the Acehnese mimetic word klèpklèp [klɛp -klɛp] which means continuous eye movements due to winking is one example of Psychomime. The word is frequently used in everyday communication to express a gesture or manner of action done by humans. In other words, it is not a sound imitating, yet it describes a phenomenon related to a gesture. Another example is the mimetic word 'a -'a [ã? ã] meaning a loud cry with mouth open widely. It symbolizes emotional state or impression in form of crying, so it is Psychomime.
Furthermore, Onomatopoeia, in a broader sense, creates a sound effect that mimics the thing resembled making the description more expressive and interesting for example, saying, "The gushing steam flows in the forest" is a more meaningful description than just saying "The stream flows in the forest". The reader is drawn to hear the sound of a gushing stream which makes the expression more effective. In addition to the sound they suggest, many onomatopoeia words have developed meaning of their own for example, "Whisper" not only represents the sound of people talking quietly but also describes the action of it -the gestures of people while talking softly and quietly.
Later, onomatopoeia also serves other several functions in language; empowering the contents of readings; delivering a livelier situation, condition, or appearance; developing the level of musicality of the oral and written texts; and penetrating the impression of readers towards the message (Aliyeh & Zeinolabedin, 2014). Accordingly, Makino 1982, as cited in Hasada (1994) mentions that the usage of onomatopoeic words in language is apparently needed to reveal a lively and realistic description of attitude, gestures or manners as well as emotional phenomena.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data for this research were obtained from people in the village of Ulee Gle, Pidie Jaya Regency. They were five people altogether to be the subject informants for this research. The researchers regulate certain traits that the informants must speak Acehnese natively and they must be adult and elderly. It was crucial to take into consideration in selecting the subject informants due to several reasons. Firstly, since it is the research of items in traditional language so it needs native speakers who can give lots of information about it, especially the reduplicative mimetic words.
Secondly, the native speakers inherit these kinds of reduplications from generation to generation around the Acehnese environment as well as frequently magnify them in daily conversation. Thirdly, adults and elderly are the forefront of the subject informants to this research since they have been gaining and comprehending enormously the reduplication form in the language.
To collect the data, the researchers used two instruments, namely interview and documentation. During the structured interview the researchers attempted to chit-chat as well as deliver some questions to the participants in order to stimulate their language. The conversation and questions are linked to Acehnese onomatopoeia which have been arranged by them previously as Bowern (2007) claims that to start a new research, the researcher get his/her first data through some prepared wordlist. Later, to record the data that have been obtained from the informants during the talks, they will be documented both in electronics (recording) and printed (hand writing).
This research uses a descriptive qualitative method in which the researchers try to describe the existence of the phenomena occurring among societies. In this case, the researchers try to describe kinds of Acehnese onomatopoeias and then interpret both their meaning as well as function obtained from the subject informants of this study. To be exact, the data obtained were exclusively interpreted in words by listing, transcribing their phonetics orderly, as well as describing both their function and meaning.
The subject informants were selected based on purposive and snowball sampling. In the purposive sampling, To select that kind of informant, the researchers made contact to people in the village. For the first step, it only needed one subject informant to meet. From that informant the researcher asked for other native Acehnese in the village to be subjects. Right on that time, the snowball sampling was being arranged. It means that the researchers questioned the very first informant to introduce them to another native Acehnese in the village that will be the next informants. As the interview was being carried out, the researchers recorded and wrote them down as an attempt to clarify what they had heard.
Data collected from the subject informants, then, were analyzed by magnifying three-step analysis, namely data selection, data analysis and data presentation (Miles, Huberman, and Saldana: 2013). Data selection means a great deal of the data gathered previously from the talks and conversation with the informants were organized based on the research focus-Acehnese onomatopoeias.
Next, data analysis includes listing, analyzing, and categorizing all of them into categories; Phonomimes, Phenomimes, and Psychomimes. Finally, the conclusion over the research was drawn based on the data analysis.

List of Acehnese Onomatopoeias
In the first stage, types of onomatopoeia were identified from the previous studies of Azwardi (2018) and Shibatani (1990) and Martin (1975), as cited in Hasada (1994). As for the second stage, the identification of kinds of Acehnese Onomatopoeias were gathered from the subject informants. The third stage was to group all of those onomatopoeic words into their proper classification in the data analysis or data interpretation step. All of the result of data interpretation can be shown as follow.  Prak-pruk [pra? -pru?] 'Imitative sound of running helter skelter'  Dhuk-dhuk/ bh'ak-bh'ak [dhu?dhu?]/ [bhã? -bhã?] 'Accelerated heart beat due to apprehension and anxiety'

6.
Khét-khét [khǝt -khǝt] 'Trembling or shaking with a slight rapid motion, typically as a result of apprehension and anxiety' DISCUSSION Based on the above findings of this research, it can be resumed that onomatopoeic words present in all aspects of life. Phonomimes --various sound imitations --elicit in form of auditory impressions, including sounds of animals, objects, oral-oriented sounds, nasal-oriented sounds, and action-oriented sounds.
From this point of view, Acehnese people prefer to magnify sound-symbolism or onomatopoeia to express what they hear or listen to in forms of sounds rather than use the long, exact words. Then, to describe the manners, actions, appearances, conditions, along with situations they utilize mimetic words --Phenomimes. There are abundant of physical appearances which cannot be described by using word -they need a long word description --so they use mimetic words to express them based on the actions they resemble to.
The mimetic words of the Phenomimes include visual impressions, attituderelated impressions (character, laughing, and speaking manners), object-related impressions, and body trait conditions. And one more thing which is interesting to note from this Acehnese Phenomimes is that one attitude or manner which only has a slight difference possess a different mimetic words as well. For example, laughing manners have four different mimetic words to portray them based on the gestures and facial expressions while laughing. The way of speaking is another example to note since it has some varieties to describe the gestures of it according to the intensity of the voices.
The last is Psychomimes which occur in sensory or sensual impressions, covering taste, smell, temperature, and inner sensations which constitute any kinds of pain (headache, skin ache, body ache), and emotions (crying and nervousness).
In this sense, various mimetic words are also used to symbolize one general sensory impression. Headache feelings, for instance, embrace two kinds of mimetic words to describe the sensation based on the intensity of the ache. Another one is skin ache that also present two kinds of mimetic words to resemble the ache.
In Acehnese speaking, the onomatopoeic words related to reduplication serve to adopt a tone more expressive or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often iconic meaning. In other words, it is done because Acehnese people prefer to name something concretely rather than labelling them with another name. To be exact, those onomatopoeic words are used as an attempt to smoothen oral communication among them.
Moreover, most of Acehnese onomatopeic words are in forms of repetition and nasalization. The condition of repetition occurs since it is one of general characteristics of Acehnese language as well as the special trait of sound imitation, known as variety of reduplications (Sulaiman et al. 1983). It means that reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word or part of it -partial reduplication-or the whole word-full reduplication-is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The nasalization of the reduplicative words exist due to there are many nasalized vocal in Acehnese language, namely 7 nasal vowels  (Asyik, 1987). Still, this nasalization modulates as a special regional feature in which special sequences of nasal occur in the language (Durie, 1985). Asyik (1972) claims that this nasalization are called the funny nasals since they are short and incomplete nasals which differ in their length and in the degree of nasality. a. Partial Reduplication The partial reduplication Acehnese Onomatopeia in three classes; Phonomimes, Phenomimes, and Psychomimes. All those three classes serve and note different various things to mimic the sounds derived from the natures, yet their functions remain the sameto give, portray, describe, symbolize, resemble, and suggest the sounds, actions, manners, situation, conditions, traits, even physical states into more vivid and livelier ways. Secondly, Acehnese Onomatopoeias come in forms of repetition or reduplication as well as nasalization.
The phenomena happen since those two are the special trait of Acehnese language and it is unusual in other languages. In other words, there are only a few languages around the globe that has such things.