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Q&A Can we dialoguify sounds?

Onomatopoeia consists in creating words whose sound is similar to the sound you want to reproduce. For instant, an explosion could be replaced by a single Bang! or the barking of a dog could ...

posted 5y ago by _X_‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-18T21:34:25Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46293
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:19:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46293
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T12:19:32Z (almost 5 years ago)
Onomatopoeia consists in creating words whose sound is similar to the sound you want to reproduce. For instant, an explosion could be replaced by a single

> Bang!

or the barking of a dog could be written as

> Woof!

Note that quotes are not necessary. Putting these words in italic is sometimes a good practice, albeit unnecessary.

This is not uncommon in comics, and, among the rest, in older Batman series. It is also extensively featured in Futuristic poetry from the beginning of the XX century.

That being said, the frame challenge is that, as you show in your example, the English language has already a good amount of onomatopoietic words, verbs in particular.

Back to your example:

> Celine banged repeatedly on the door. She raised her fists and punched, boomed, clanged, knocked, tapped, slammed, bumped, thud, thumped, smacked, stamped, stomped, and clomped until they finally opened.

Or, if there was a meaning in the different words, you could consider:

> Celine banged on the door. She knew the code well: three loud bangs and a softer one, then two and two, and finally three loud bangs.

* * *

Please consider upvoting [Cyn's comment](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/46289/can-we-dialoguify-sounds#comment77565_46289), which first suggested looking into onomatopoeia.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-06-26T22:56:23Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2