Secondary onomatopoeia: A study in the poetry of Abu Al-Atahiya

Abstract

The significance of sound in conveying meaning has been a subject of interest for scholars both ancient and modern in both Arabic and Western cultures. Linguists and phoneticians have debated it, with supporters and opponents. Arabic culture has recognized its importance since the time of Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad Al-Farahidi, but no one delved into its study as thoroughly and extensively with examples as Ibn Jinni did There are two types of sound mimicry: one focuses on studying the significance of individual sounds for their meanings, while the other pertains to studying words within specific structures and understanding their phonetic significances and meanings.This research constitutes an analytical study of the poet Abu Al-Atahiya's use of onomatopoeic sounds for their meanings at the sentence level. The poetic texts in the poet's anthology contain structures that incorporate a set of sounds that weave their meanings or produce images and meanings with suggestive energy corresponding to their words, in addition to the phoneme of movement and its impact on changing the meaning depending on its pronunciation.