A Sound Symbolic Study of Translation of Onomatopoeia in Children's Literature: The Case of Tintin

As onomatopoeic words or expressions are attractive, the users of languages in the fields of religion, literature, music, education, linguistics, trade, and so forth wish to utilize them in their utterances. They are more effective and imaginative than the simple words. Onomatopoeic words or expressions attach us to the real nature and to our inner senses. This study aims at familiarity with onomatopoeia, its trans- lation, and usage by bringing pure studies on onomatopoeia into practice, and drawing a map of verbal onomatopoeic utterances in the nature more objectively. It also wishes to pave the way in future for providing onomatopoeic dictionaries and other reference books. To do so, it has primarily followed a library research by which the researcher gathered information through legitimate references and heuris- tically and qualitatively analyzed it. The pertinent instrumentation comprised in content analysis of Tintin’s story books in English language, and first and second translations in Persian language each in four volumes via Hinton et al.’s model of sound symbolism, semi-structured interview, and inter-rated coding with 10 readers and a publisher. Data analysis shows that Persian translations of onomatopoeias are phonetically and culturally adaptable to the original texts.