From Vocalisation to Verbalisation: Strategies for Turning Bird Calls into Language

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the calls of birds (vocalisation) and the way these are put into words (verbalised), mainly in English, but with some reference to Afrikaans and Zulu. The emphasis is on how the authors of bird guides for bird watchers render the calls of different species as an aid to identification. Distinctions are made between descriptive strategies, which may include the use of metaphor and simile, and imitative strategies, which are subdivided into partial verbalisation and full verbalisation. The article then looks at how these strategies are used in the formation of bird names, themselves another way of verbalising bird calls. The article concludes that in the verbalising of bird vocalisation, at least two interlocking linguistic processes are taking place, one being the conversion of bird “language” into human language; another being the rendering of sound as writing. A third process is onymisation, the turning of words and phrases into names.