IDEOPHONES WORLDWIDE
n It seems that ideophones are far more prevalent in Africa than in other world language phyla.
n It is hard to be sure, but lists of
ideophones for other
predominantly oral regions of the world seem to be remarkably short
n Possibly because other strategies (such
as a rich repertoire
of adjectives or adverbs or phonoaesthemes) substitute.
n However, language phyla also just differ
and Africa may
be a special case