The Javanese Onomatopoeic Words Concerning Human Sense, Head and Eye Movements

Abstract

Onomatopoeic words in the Javanese language are evidence of the uniqueness of both lingual aspects and the described facts. This study discussed the phenomenon of phonological and morphological language processing. This study examined the derivation of the onomatopoeic root words of Javanese into some form of the word as an iconic formation. The data source covered source language of local print media. The study found that the iconic words to denote the head movements are classifiable into two types of motion. The first, the head movement itself is without involving the other elements; second, the head movement which involves other elements. Head movements that do not involve other elements include the motions of up and down, like: manthuk [mantu?] ‘nodding’, lenggut-lenggut[lәŋgut-lәŋgut] ‘nodding’, and ndhingkluk [nḍiŋklu?] ‘down’; right and left lateral movements, such as: gedheg[gɛḍɛg]. Additionally, head movements that involve other elements are described by a word sundhul[sundUl]. The iconic nature of several words for eyes movements are words such as mlorok [mlɔrɔ?], kedhep [kәḍɛp], nglirik [ŋlirI?], liyer-liyer [lijәrlijәr], mencereng [mʧәñәŋrәŋ], blalak [blala?] and ngiyer [әijәr]. The word mlorok ‘glaring’ was derived from basic word plorok with addition of prefix aN-, and comes from the root rok.