Sound Symbolism in the Qur’an as a Reflection of the Ancient Arab Worldview (on the Example of Four-Consonant Roots)

Abstract

Sound symbolism plays an important role for artistic devices and rhetorical techniques of the Qur’an. On the lexical material from four-consonant roots that could be described as an extremely archaic layer of the Arabic vocabulary, the article discusses ideophones (words that express an idea or convey a certain impression through their sound) in the Qur’anic Arabic. The article also describes their morphological structure and etymology of ideophones in the Qur’an. Semantic analysis and classification of these lexical units show that words of the language of the Qur’an, derived from four-consonant roots, dominantly describe the characteristics of movement, sound and visual sensations. The abundant set of sound-symbolic vocabulary in the language of the Qur’an reflects a cohesive, holistic worldview. Within that worldview a human being did not contrast himself with the environment and other living beings, but felt that he was a whole entity with them. He perceived sounds and other phenomena of the surrounding world as manifestations of otherworldly forces and supernatural beings, and this vision determined the sacred nature of the vocabulary that described these phenomena and its special rhetorical persuasiveness, as well as the emotional impact on listeners of the Qur’anic text. Moreover, a comparison with similar phenomena in other cultures allow us to suggest that sound-symbolic vocabulary was of the great importance for creating the performative function of the Qur’anic text, which was perceived as having special power to influence the world.