Structural and Semantic Analyses of Onomatopoeic words in Gilaki in Comparison with Persian language

Onomatopoeic words are names referred to sounds made by animals, birds, human beings, and nature. They are similar to the sounds they are described; In fact, in these kinds of words, the relation between form and meaning is natural. However, there are varieties among onomatopoeic words in different languages, sometimes they are rooted in different structures of the languages and in some cases indicating their cultural diversities. In this study, structures and semantics of the onomatopoeic words in Gilaki and Rashti dialects are studied. Thus, 138 onomatopoeic words have been extracted from two Gilaki glossaries and two Gilaki native-speakers who are almost 60 years-old, and the findings are presented in four tables based on their significance. Then, according to morphological forms of the onomatopoeic words, they are classified in three primary groups as simple, complete reduplication and partial one, and two secondary groups such as re-reduplication and discrete reduplication. Finally, in comparison with Persian onomatopoeias, it has been shown that from a structural perspective, there are many similarities between the onomatopoeias of the two languages; but from a semantic-pragmatic viewpoint, there are some differences which can be explained by cultural and geographical differences between Gilaki and Persian languages in most cases.