Giyatmi
LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 13 No. 1 2023
LET: Linguistics, Literature and English Teaching Journal
||Volume||13||Issue||1||Pages||105-127||2023||
|P-ISSN: 20869606; E-ISSN: 25492454|
Available online at: http://jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id/index.php
Onomatopoeia Found in Tintin Comics
Giyatmi
giyami85jimmy@gmail.com
Sihindun Arumi
sihindunarumi1@gmail.com
Ratih Wijayava
ratihwijayava@gmail.com
Veteran Bangun Nusantara University, Indonesia
Article History:
Received: 04 April 2023
Accepted: 15 June 2023
This research focuses on the use of
onomatopoeia in the Tintin comic. This study
aims at describing the types of onomatopoeia in
Tintin comic. This is a descriptive qualitative
research. The data of this research are
onomatopoeic forms found in Tintin comics. The
data sources of this research are 3 Tintin comics,
namely Tintin in the Tibet, Tintin and the Alph-
Art, and Tintin and Picaros. To collect the data,
the writers use documentation (Tintin comic)
and content analysis. Data analysis in this study
consists of three stages such as data reduction,
data display, and conclusion. There are 51 data
of onomatopoeia. The writers find there are 3
types of onomatopoeia; phonomime
onomatopoeia (29), phenomim onomatopoeia
(12), and psychomime onomatopoeia (10). The
phonomime onomatopoeia is the most dominant
onomatopoeia found.
Corresponding Author:
sihindunarumi1@gmail.com
Keywords:
Onomatopoeia; Comic;
Speech Act
http://jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id/index.php
mailto:giyami85jimmy@gmail.com
mailto:sihindunarumi1@gmail.com
mailto:ratihwijayava@gmail.com
mailto:sihindunarumi1@gmail.com
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INTRODUCTION
Om Telolet Om… Maybe some of us still remember that expression. The
phrase that appeared at the end of 2016 and early 2017 were very familiar and even
became viral in cyberspace and among the public, especially those who claim to be
the Bis Mania community, even this phenomenon has reached foreign countries.
Om Telolet Om started from the habit of children around the Jepara-Kudus
highway asking the bus driver they call Om to sound the bus horn, and it turns out
that the horn sound is not just a "tin-tin" but sounds like a telolet sound. Actually,
the children initially mentioned Om Klakson Om so that the driver sounded the
horn and coincidentally the sound of the bus usually resembled the sound of
Telolet so they replaced it with the word Telolet. There are interesting things about
what the children have done in terms of language knowledge. The children
analogized the sound of telolet with the sound of a horn. These children substitute
indirectly showing one of the characteristics of language, namely Onomatopoeia.
In simple terms, onomatopoeia is a word or group of words imitating the
sound associated with what is described. The sounds that are imitated are not only
animal sounds, nature sounds, but also human voices. In everyday life, there are
many words that imitate the sound produced by an object in real life. For example,
the sound of the telephone ringing, the sound of the horn (tin-tin, din din). In
addition, there are also sounds that are imitated by animal sounds such as the
sound of dogs (woof), the sound of the cat (meow) and so on are known as
onomatopoeia (Chang, 2018).
The use of onomatopoeia is often found in comics instead of other media.
In comics, onomatopoeia represents sound effects (Chang, 2018). It means that the
widely used of onomatopoeia in comics and magazines because of its effectiveness
in creating good sound effects in these media.
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Figure 1. Sleepy Donald Duck
Figure 1 shows how the sleepy Donald Duck who tried to grab the phone
ringing is. There are 3 onomatopoeias found in Figure 1 such as rrrrrring,
grummel, and suefz. Rrringgg is an imitation of the sound of a telephone. The use
of rrrriingg as onomatopoeia is to give the readers imagination of the sound of the
telephone ringing. Meanwhile grummel and suefz possibly refer to a grumbling
sound. Those onomatopoeias describe Donald Duck’s feeling when he answers the
phone during his bed time.
There are several definitions that relate to onomatopoeia. Etymologically,
onomatopoeia derives from the Greek words namely onoma (name) and poeieo (to
make) so onomatopoeia means name making. In general, the usage of a term that
phonetically mimics, looks like, or refers to the sound that it describes is known as
onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia refers to the words made by imitating the sound and
name of an object or action by imitating the sound of the object associated with the
object (Chang, 2018). In addition, Dofs in (Rauf, 2016) defines onomatopoeia as a
type of sound that is designated by its object and reproduces a natural sound.
Additionally, Ogata in (Rauf, 2016) mentions that a sound-imitated description of
animals and phenomena in nature called onomatopoeia. Tiwiyanti also writes that
onomatopoeia is a word that has the similar sound with the sound that describes
certain objects (Tiwiyanti, 2016).
Meanwhile, Gasser in (Eliza, 2013) mentions onomatopoeia as naming of
objects that imitate the sound produced by that objects and the form of
onomatopoeia can be the sound of certain object, animal, and actions. Along with
the previous definition, Assaneo in (Muliawati & Yusnida, 2019) explains that
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onomatopoeia is defined as an imitative-driven transformation of natural sounds
into a word.
Furthermore, onomatopoeia according to Pierce in Antila in (Chang, 2018)
is a word that duplicates nature sounds that are frequently natively considered to be
entirely distinctive as it is exact duplicates of the original sounds they refer to such
as the sound of a quack imitating the sound of a duck in English, and wek wek in
Indonesia. Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams in (Alameer, 2019) see onomatopoeia as
words in which their pronunciation defines their meaning, for example, meow
(cat), buzz (insect).
Assaneo writes that onomatopoeia is a unique language condition because
it instinctively imitate sounds to establish a connection with the objects they
resemble (Muliawati & Yusnida, 2019). In addition, the widely recognized cross-
language phenomenon known as onomatopoeia happens when a linguistic
component is phonetically influenced by the sound of the reality it transmits
(Kirtchuk, 2011). Seyyedi argues that onomatopoeia, the making of words
imitating natural sounds, is a common phenomenon found in all languages of the
world (Seyyedi & Akhlaghi, 2013). Meanwhile, according to Kambara
onomatopoeia words serve to give words more life by representing states, actions,
sentiments, and feelings (Rauf, 2016).
From several definitions related to onomatopoeia, it can be concluded that
onomatopoeia is related to the process of sound or action imitation to certain object
such as human, animal, and natural phenomena. Onomatopoeia with sound
imitation includes bang bang (sound of weapon), riinngg (sound of phone ringing),
whoooo whooo (sound of an owl), whizz (sound of the wind). Afterward,
onomatopoeia that relates to action imitation can be like glug glug (drinking), zzzz
(sleeping), chomp chomp (eating), smack (kissing), and scratch (tearing up). In
addition, onomatopoeia also can represent action, sentiments, and feelings. Dealing
with feeling and sentiments, onomatopoeia includes argh (annoyed), aaaahh (pain).
Finally, onomatopoeia classifies as a unique and cross-language phenomena since
it can be found in all languages around the world such as knocking the door; knock
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knock (English), tok tok (Indonesia), toc toc (Mexico/Spanish), puk puk (Polish),
the barking dog; Woof woof (English), Gav Gav and Tyav tyav (Russia), ouaf ouaf
(French).
There are many linguists explaining the types of onomatopoeia. Ullamn in
(Eliza, 2013) classifies onomatopoeia into two, namely primary onomatopoeia and
secondary onomatopoeia. Primary onomatopoeia occurs due to imitating sound
with the sound produced by the object itself. Meanwhile, according to Alexander
in (Alameer, 2019) primary onomatopoeia occurs in words and sound that refers to
the certain object. In this case onomatopoeia belongs to a word that is produced by
imitating the sound produced by the object itself such as buzz (bee), growl (bear),
hum (human), plop (mud puddle), roar (lion), squeak (pig), whizz (wind) and the
sound of objects such as bell (ding ding), car beeping (horn), phone (riiingg).
Secondary onomatopoeia occurs due to the relationship between the sound of an
object and its action. Alexander in (Alameer, 2019) states that the secondary
onomatopoeia is the imitation of the sound due to the certain action. This
onomatopoeia is a combination between the sound of an object and its action, for
example, chopm chomp refers to eating, gulp gulp refers to drinking, Thum/thud
refers to colliding.
On the other hand, Bredin in Dofs in (Rauf, 2016) divides onomatopoeia
into three: Direct Onomatopoeia, Associative Onomatopoeia, and Exemplary
Onomatopoeia. Direct onomatopoeia refers to the original sound of the object
being referred to such as buzz (bee), hiss (snake), moo (cow). Associative
Onomatopoeia refers to the sound imitation due to its similarity of the object and
the word denoted such as cukooo (bird), bubble, whip, scratch, splatter, cackle,
cough, whisper. Exemplary Onomatopoeia refers to the sound imitation based on
the quantity and physical work of the speaker in pronouncing it such as nimble,
dart, slothful, sluggish, mumble.
Thomas in (Chang, 2018) mention that there are four types of
onomatopoeia, namely Calls of animals (animal sounds), sounds of nature (natural
sounds), sounds made by human (human sound) and other sounds. Meanwhile,
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Shibatani and Martin in (Hasada, 1994) distinguish onomatopoeia into (1)
phonomime onomatopoeia which imitates the type of sound produced by nature
such as the sound of animals, objects and humans, (2) phenomime onomatopoeia
which describes the action, the nature, appearance, circumstances, situations, and
conditions of the world outside, (3) psychomime onomatopoeia which symbolizes
psychological states, body feelings, and inner feelings. Contrary to phonomimes,
which are known as (sound-) onomatopoeia, phenomimes and psychomimes are
frequently referred to as mimetic words.
Simpson in (Al-Zubbaidi, 2014) mentions that lexical onomatopoeia refers
to words recognized in the language system as words such as thud, crack, slurp and
buzz, whose symbolic pronunciation becomes their reference outside the language.
Non-lexical onomatopoeia, on the other hand, refers to a group of sounds that echo
the world without the mediation of linguistic structures such as vroom vroom or
brrrmmmm brrrmmmm.
A comic is invented by a Rudolphe Topfer, a Swiss cartoonist in 1873
(Firdaus et al., 2021). Etymologically, the word comic is taken from Greek term,
komikos, meaning humor. Wigans states Comics as a type of graphic art that
frequently use the sequential arrangement of images and text to communicate a
story, idea, or piece of information. They may occasionally lack words and depict
speech instead using conventions and symbolism, such as word balloons (Putri et
al., 2017). Comics are a medium for expressing ideas in images combined with
text or visual information. Suwastomo concludes that a comic is a piece of art that
tells a series of stories in image form about characters and incidents that can be
hilarious, puzzling, etc (Suwastomo, 2016). Along with the previous definition,
Firdaus et al define a comic as a narratively organized collection of images that
includes dialogue (Firdaus et al., 2021).
Experts argue that the two most common forms of comics are comic book
and comic strips. A comic book is a novel or a collection of stories expressed in
pictures, text, and other visual information on the other hand comic strips having
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similar components when compared to comic books; only they are shorter. Strip
comics are continual comics that are printed in newspapers (Suwastomo, 2016).
Comic elements include panels, letters, balloons, captions, and borders.
Panels are the most basic element in a comic strip. Panels can be square, round, or
triangular. The panel is the place where all the other elements are delivered. The
images represent the character's appearance, actions, and facial expressions,
whereas letters are any text on a comic page that is used to emphasize important
words. Balloons are for text, usually include a pointed end that connects the
balloon to the character speaking or thinking of the words written in the text.
Speech balloons are usually straight-edged balloons, while thought balloons are
usually bubble-eyed. Text is used for narration or transition text. Borders are lines
that enclose panels, balloons, and captions. Together, they tell the story in several
well-ordered panels.
Comics become interesting because they do not only contain images but
also language expressions, one of which is onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is widely
used in comics and poetry. Onomatopoeia is a part of linguistics that describes
events and fantasies. Guynes in (Chang, 2018) states that Onomatopoeia in comics
is a representation of sound effect that is manifested in graphic/written form.
Onomatopoeia is usually called sound effect. Sasamoto and Jackson in (Sunarya &
Sutono, 2021) state that onomatopea is a communication phenomenon. Sangoi in
(Alameer, 2019) relates onomatopoeia between comic books, magazines and
stories with the effectiveness of linguistic phenomena to increase the attractiveness
of comics, magazines.
Onomatopoeia is widely used in comics, magazines because onomatopoeia
is very effective in creating good sound effects in these media. Onomatopoeia
helps provide voice support for comic readers so that readers can imagine when
reading comics. Many comic writers use onomatopoeia to express the feelings of
the characters. Onomatopoeia is an image of the mind that can give imagination to
comic readers when reading comics.
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The function of Onomatopoeia according to Aliyeh and Zeinolabedin in
(Alameer, 2019) are enriches the reading content. Onomatopoeia gives a livelier
situation, condition, or appearance. In addition, it develops the level of musicality
of spoken and written texts. Furthermore, it stimulate the reader's impression of the
message to reveal a vivid and realistic description of the attitudes, gestures or
behavior and emotional phenomena Maino in (Hasada, 1994). Again, the
employment of onomatopoeia in comics aids the reader in recognizing the
significance of an object that would otherwise be meaningless if no explanation
were provided (Firdaus et al., 2021).
There are many studies related to onomatopoeia in comics which can be
broadly grouped into several fields. First are studies of onomatopoeia in education
field such as (1) Tiara Eliza (2018) Using Onomatopoeia in Comic to Improve
Vocabulary. The results of this study indicate that teaching vocabulary using
onomatopoeia in comics can be used to increase students' vocabulary, (2) Aulia
Putri et al (2017) The Effect of Onomatopoeia in Comic Strip and Instrumental
Motivation towards Students' Reading Comprehension Achievement. This study
aims to determine whether there is a relationship between students' understanding
of reading skills in students who are taught using onomatopoeia on comic strips on
motivation, (3) Bambang Suswanto (2016) Teaching Using Comic as A Media To
Improve Student’s Vocabulary Mastery at Tenth Grade of SMAN 1 Muntok. The
study reports that students taught using comic has greater achievement than those
of not taught using comic, therefore comic can be used as one of media to teach
vocabulary.
Second are the research on onomatopoeia conducted on poetry such as that
was conducted by Haitham K. Al Zubbaidi (2014) Functions of Onomatopoeia in
Modern English and Arabic Poetry: A Study in selected Poems by Lawrence and
Al-Sayyab. The results of this study indicate that the use of onomatopoeia is
associated with cultural differences. The research on the use of onomatopoeia on
poetry was also done by Walen Carera et al (2019) Analysis Onomatopoeia in
Selected Poem by Lee Emmett. The study focuses on types of onomatopoeia.
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Third are studies focusing on comparing onomatopoeia of two languages
such as that conducted by Abdullah Alhasan Alameer (2019) The Linguistic
Feature of Onomatopoeia Word in Arabic-English: A Contrastive Study. The
results of this study indicate that Arabic and English can use onomatopoeia in
different situations and settings. In addition, this study also shows that there are
similarities related to onomatopoeic grouping, onomatopoeic meaning, and sound.
Candra Alim Tohari et.al. (2016) The Phonological Analysis of Animal Sounds in
English and Indonesians. They provides 20 animal onomatopoeia from English and
Indonesia that then examined by using phonology and phonetics theory to find
their similarities and differences both in consonants and vowel.
Research related to onomatopoeia is also carried out in translation studies.
Leni Tiwiyanti (2016) with the title An Analysis on Onomatopeic Words and Their
Translation Proceduring in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban and Its
Translation Version. The results show that onomatopoeia in the form of a verb
becomes the most dominant type of word after nouns, adjectives, and interjections.
Meanwhile, there are 5 translation procedures found, namely; borrowing, literal
translation, transposition, modulation, equivalence sets. Rosa Munoz-Luna (2019)
The Translation of Onomatopoeias in Comics: Linguistic and Pedagogical
Implications. This case study particularly focuses on how onomatopoeias and
interjections are handled in the translations in order to figure out how significantly
culture and context have an impact on the various linguistic counterparts. The use
of comic strips in foreign language education has some pedagogic implications that
are also examined.
The last one is the type of research that often appears in the discussion of
onomatopoeia is the type of onomatopoeia, and the meaning of onomatopoeia.
Walen Carera et al (2019) Type and Meaning of Onomatopoeia in Selected Poems
by Lee Emmett. The results of this study indicate that there are two types of
onomatopoeia, namely primary onomatopoeia and secondary onomatopoeia. The
most dominant type of onomatopoeia is secondary onomatopoeia. Abdul Muin et
al (2016) The Onomatopoeia in Robert Vendetti's Comic "The Flash". The
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research found two types of onomatopoeia in the comic “The Flash”, namely direct
onomatopoeia and indirect onomatopoeia. This study also shows that
onomatopoeia can have both lexical and contextual meanings. Aprilia Chang et al
(2018) also conducted onomatopoeic research related to type and meaning with the
title The Analysis of Onomatopoeia in the Adventure of Tintin and the Blue Lotus.
This study focuses on onomatopoeia classification. The results showed that based
on Ullman's theory; there were two types of onomatopoeia (primary and secondary
onomatopoeia). Onomatopoeia is also classified based on the sound that describes
it, namely the human voice, the sound of nature, the sound of animals. In terms of
its meaning, onomatopoeia has a contextual meaning. Onomatopoeia as a form of
speech act in the research, the most dominant is declarative speech act.
Meanwhile, in this study, the writers also focus on the classification.
However, the writers use the classification of onomatopoeia from Hasada which
consists of phonomime onomatopoeia, phenomime onomatopoeia, Psychomimes
onomatopoeia. The writers use Hasada theory because Hasada’s theory present
onomatopoeia not only in terms of physical (type of sound), in terms of
action/nature but also in term of psychological state.
METHOD
This research is a qualitative descriptive study. The researchers observe the
phenomenon of onomatopoeia found in Tintin comics. This research uses the
onomatopoeic forms found in the Tintin comics as data for the study. The research
uses three comics of Tintin, namely Tintin in the Tibet, Tintin and the Alph-Art,
and Tintin and Picaros. In this study, researchers used documentation and content
analysis techniques through the note-taking method. Researchers used three Tintin
comics that consists of Tintin in the Tibet (TiTT), Tintin and the Alph-Art
(TatAA), and Tintin and Picaros (TaP) during the data collection process.
Furthermore, the researchers collect data by using content analysis and
documentation. This study uses researcher triangulation because this study consists
of 3 researchers. Data analysis includes several steps consisting of data reduction,
data display, data verification to make conclusions. Data reduction is done when
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there are same data of onomatopoeia found during the research. After all the data
collected, the next step is coding the data. The data code is also given based on a
predetermined code system, namely No Data/Comic Title/Page/Onomatopoeic
Type. Then the data are displayed in a table. After the data is coded, the next step
is data analysis to answer the problem formulation. The data are analyzed to find
the types of onomatopoeia found in Tintin in the Tibet, Tintin and the Alph-Art,
and Tintin and Picaros.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This study analyzes the types of onomatopoeia found in Tintin's English
comics. There are 3 comics (Tintin in the Tibet, Tintin and the Alph-Art, and
Tintin and Picaros) that are used as data sources. Related to data collection, the
researcher used content analysis. At the time of data collecting, the researchers
immediately conducted data reduction. Data reduction is done when the same
onomatopoeias are found and they describe the same things. However, when the
researchers found the same onomatopoeias but they describe different thing, the
researchers did not eliminate the data. For example, Bang which were found more
than one. Based on the research finding, Bang is used to describe the sound of gun
shooting, explosion, as well as collision, so the researchers treated them as
different data and did not reduce them. From the data searching process, the
authors found 51 data. The data are then classified based on the type of
onomatopoeia on the onomatopoeia. The table below shows the types of
onomatopoeia found in the 3 English versions of Tintin comics (Tintin in the
Tibet, Tintin and the Alph-Art, and Tintin and Picaros)
Table 1. Types of Onomatopoeia
No Types of onomatopoeia Amount
1 Phonomime onomatopoeia 29
2 Phenomime onomatopoeia 12
3 Psychomime onomatopoeia 10
Total 51
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Types of Onomatopoeia found in Tintin Comics
Onomatopoeia is a word or group of words that imitates the sounds of the
source it describes. There are several theories that discuss the types of
onomatopoeia. In this study, researchers used the onomatopoeic type theory from
Hasada. Hasada classifies the types of onomatopoeia into 3 groups, namely
phonomime, phenomime, and psychomime. In this study, the researchers found
three types of onomatopias, namely phonomime onomatopoeia (29 data),
phenomime onomatopoeia (12 data), and psychomime onomatopoeia (10 data).
Phonomime Onomatopoeia
Phonomime onomatopoeia is a type of onomatopoeia that imitates the types
of sounds produced by nature such as the sounds of animals, objects, and humans.
Researchers found 29 data belonging to this group. Phonomime onomatopoeia is
the most dominant type of onomatopoeia found in the Tintin comics. Phonomime
onomatopoeia is the most common type of onomatopoeia and is easy to create
phonomime onomatopoeia. It just imitates the sound of the object. Phonomime
onomatopoeia in this study can be broadly divided into three major groups based
on the object that are imitated. The following table shows the classification found
in phonomime onomatopoeia:
Tabel 2. Phonomime Onomatopoeia
No Phonomime
Onomatopoeia
Data Meaning Amount
1 Animal Sound Poc Poc, Tu Whooo Sound of
bird
2
2 Human sound Achooo Sneezing 3
Mmmm , zzzzzz Sleeping
3 Object Knock knock, Toc Toc, Rat
Rat
Knocking
door
3
Ring ring Phone
ringing
1
Boom, Bang Explosion 2
Dong Doorbell 1
Tacatacatacarrrrrvrooommmm,
Vroommm, pinponpinpon,
RRRRRR
Engine of a
vehicle
4
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Bang bang, pof pof, paf paf,
rat tat tat
Gun 4
Clang, poot, bong, Throwing 3
Blam, Slam Closing the
door
2
Crash, skrr, bang Collision 3
Splosh Water 1
Total 29
Here are some examples of phonomime onomatopoeia found in Tintin Comi:
1) 01/TaAA/Poc Poc Poc/Phono
The phonomime onomatopoeia can be animal sound. Poc Poc Poc
comes from the sound of a bird. As described in the comic, there is a bird
outside Captain’s bedroom.
2) 32/TaAA/Tu Whooo/Phono
Another phonomime onomatopoeia found in the research is Tu-
Whoooo which refers to the sound of an owl. On the comic, it is described
the owl is on the tree outside Tintin’s room.
3) 15/TaAA/AAAchoo/Phono
Achoo refers to the sound of sneezing. The term "ACHOO" refers
to an inherited condition known as Autosomal Dominant Compelling
Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst Syndrome, which causes excessive sneezing.
The sound Achoo appears in the comic when Captain sneezes.
4) 61/TiT/zzzz/Phono
Meanwhile another onomatopoeia describing the sound of sleeping
is zzzz spoken by Captain. He is singing at the first, however, he falls
asleep finally while walking. There is another onomatopoeia used to
describe the sound of sleeping, i.e. 14/TaAA/mmmm/Phono. It happens
when Captain Haddock and Tintin attends the show of
5) 02/TaAA/Toc Toc/Phono
There are three sounds of knocking door found in the comic. Rat
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rat rat is the sound made by knocking on a door with a hard object (such
as a door knocker) in addition rat rat rat refers to a series of short, sharp
taps especially made by knocking on a door. Toc toc toc is also an
onomatopoeia describing the sound of knocking on a door in certain
country such as Mexico. Meanwhile knock knock is a very general
onomatopoeia for knocking on a door. Here is the example of the
onomatopoeia of knocking the door 02/TaAA/Toc Toc/Phono
6) 03/TaAA/Ring Ring/Phono
Ring ring is the common onomatopoeia used to imitate the sound of
phone ringing. People may use this onomatopoeia when they pretend to
give a call. This onomatopoeia indicates the phone ringing.
7) 05/TaAA/Boom/Phono
Boom describes the sound of explosion. In the comic, the
onomatopoeia of Boom happens when there is a big explosion because of
the terrorist attack that is broadcasted on the television. The explosion
seems so hard that everyone around the television get startled.
8) 06/TaAA/Dong/Phono
Dong describes the deep resonant sound of a large bell
(http://onomatopoeialist.com/dong/). This onomatopoeia appears in the
comic when the Twin detectives arrived at Tintin and Captain’s room as
shown in the following picture;
http://onomatopoeialist.com/dong/
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9) 07/TaAA/Bang/Phono
The onomatopoeia of Bang is usually used to describe the sound of
gun shooting. There are three onomatopoeias of Bang found in the Tintin
comics; however, they occur in different ways. These three Bangs are used
to described the sound of gun shooting, explosion and collision.
07/TaAA/Bang/Phono appears when Captain Haddock and the twin
detectives’ cigar explode several minutes after they light the cigars on.
Different from boom, it seems bang is to describe small explosion.
10) 23/TaAA/pinponpin/Phono
There are several sounds represent the sound of siren such as nee
naw, wee-oww, reeeeeeeeeeee, woop, weeo, BWEEP bip bip BWEEP,
eeeeeee, eeeoooeeeooo, woowoo-woo, weeeoooeee (Onomatopoeia Book).
However the sound of siren found in the comic is represented by
pinponpinpon. The siren comes from the fire brigade car. Here is the
example of the data;
11) 55/TaP/RRRRR/Phono
Another onomatopoeia imitate the sound of vehicle engine is
RRRRR, the sound of a helicopter. There are several sounds refers to plane
such as rrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrr, URRRRRR. The sound appears when Tintin,
Captain Haddock, and General Alcazar are in the jungle. There is a
helicopter in the sky searching for them.
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12) 52/TaP/Ratatat/Phono
There are several onomatopoeia used to symbolized the sounds of
gun shooting such as rat-tat-tat, pew pew, pap pap, brrrrtt, boom boom,
bang bang, kablam, and dut dut (https://grammarhow.com/gunshot-sound-
words/). However in the comics, the onomatopoeia to describe the sounds
of gun shooting is ratatatat. Ratata refers to a fast gun shooting. Here is the
example of the use of onomatopoeia describing the gun shot;
13) 19/TaAA/clang/Phono
Clang means a noisy, metallic sound
(https://www.clarkandmiller.com/sound-words-in-english-bang-smash-
crash-and-39-more/). Another resources mentions that clang means loud
ringing metallic sound, such as an aluminum baseball bat hitting the ball (
http://www.writtensound.com/index.php?term=clang). In the comic the use
of clang as onomatopoeia can be seen in the following picture when there is
a tin falling behind Tintin.
14) 49/TaP/Bong/Phono
Based on the context, Bong is a sound immitation appearing when
monkeys threw a bottle to Captain Haddock. Bong means sounds of
bouncing and hard hit
(http://www.writtensound.com/index.php?term=bong).
https://grammarhow.com/gunshot-sound-words/
https://grammarhow.com/gunshot-sound-words/
https://www.clarkandmiller.com/sound-words-in-english-bang-smash-crash-and-39-more/
https://www.clarkandmiller.com/sound-words-in-english-bang-smash-crash-and-39-more/
http://www.writtensound.com/index.php?term=clang
http://www.writtensound.com/index.php?term=bong
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15) 20/TaAA/Blam/Phono
Blam indicates of an explosive noise or sound, however, in the
comic of Tintin it is used when someone closes the door hard and angrily.
Tintin is in front of the door of a man’s room and the man opens the door
angrily while saying that he has no opinion and asking Tintin to leave him
alone. It seems he does not want to talk to Tintin. In the end, he closes the
door hard and angrily. Here is the example of the data;
16) 22/TaAA/Bang/Phono
The onomatopoeia used in the comic is Bang which is commonly
used for imitating the sound of the gun. However, here it describes the
collision between cars. Bang refers to an object that makes a short, sharp
noise when coming into contact with a hard surface
(https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/onomatopoeia-impacts.php).
Here is the example of the data;
17) 47/TaP/SPLOSH/Phono
Water onomatopoeia includes bloop, drip,drizzle, splash, spray,
sprinkle, squirt, etc. In the book of Onomatopoeia, splosh refers to the
sound of raining. In the comic, splosh appears when Captain falls into the
stream. When his body hits the water, then splosh comes. Here is the
example of the data;
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/onomatopoeia-impacts.php
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Phenomime Onomatopoeia
Phenomime onomatopoeia refers to those of describing the way of doing
some actions, describing traits, appearance, and condition. The researchers find 12
data belonging to phenomime onomatopoeia. They, then, can be classified into; 9
data describing some actions and 3 data describing appearance/traits/condition.
Tabel 3. Phenomime Onomatopoeia
No Phenomime
Onomatopoeia
Data Meaning Amount
1 Action Glug glug Drinking 9
Smack Kissing
Fassiiiii Pressing the brake
Aom Praying
Scratch Digging
Clap Catching
Sniff Smelling
Pof pof pof
Glub glub
Smoking
Diving
2 Describing Hic
his
zzingg
Hiccup
drunk
Fall down
3
Total 12
Here are some examples of phenomime onomatopoeia found in Tintin Comic;
1) 43/TaP/Glug glug/Pheno
Glug glug as an onomatopoeia refers to the sound of people
drinking. Glug means making a gurgling sound when liquid substances is
poured (https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/onomatopoeia-food-
drink.php)
In the comic it is described that the chief of the Arumbayas (avakuki) holds
a bottle of whisky then drink the whisky.
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/onomatopoeia-food-drink.php
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/onomatopoeia-food-drink.php
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2) 04/TaAA/Smack/Pheno
In English, there are different ways to write the sound of a kiss such
as muah, smack, muach xxx. In Tintin comic, the sound of kissing is
described with sound smack. Smack means loud kiss
(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/smack).
3) 34/TaP/Sniff/Pheno
Sniff means drawing air through the nose. Sniff in the comic seems
used to describe Captain who smells a bottle of Loch Lomond (Whisky).
He opens its bottle then sniffs it.
4) 35/TaAA/Scratch Scratch/Pheno
Scratch means to tear or to mark a surface something sharp. In the
comic, scratch scratch appears when Snowy is scratching the outside wall
where Tintin is captived.
5) 36/TaAA/Clap/Pheno
Clap usually refers to the sound of clapping hands, however, in this
comic, it represent the sound of catching something hard. In this comic, the
sound of clap appears when Tintin throws something like a board flake
then Snowy catch it with his mouth and teeth.
6) 56/TaP/hic/Pheno
Hic and Hips both represent the getting drunk people. Captain
Alcazar gets angry to his soldier because most of his soldiers get drunk
because of whisky. He warns his soldier to drop the bottle or he will shoot
them. Meanwhile his drunken soldiers stop and make no sound except hic
and hips.
Psychomime Onomatopoeia
Psychomime onomatopoeia describes the psychological condition such as
feeling. There are 10 psychomime onomatopoeia found in Tintin Comic as the
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/smack
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following table:
Tabel 4. Physchomime Onomatopoeia
No Psychomime Onomatopoeia Data Amount
1 Annoyed Sshh sshh 1
2 Distasteful food and beverage
Yeurgh
Ughhh
Pfouagh
3
3 Pain
Aargh
Waaah
Waoaoaow
AAAAH
4
4 Surprise
Eeek
Zzoing
2
Total 10
Here are the examples of the phsychomime onomatopoeia:
1) 14/TaAA/ssh ssh/Psycho
Ssh ssh is used to call for silence. The onomatopoeia of ssh ssh
appears when the audience asks Titin and Captain Haddock to be quiet.
They feel annoyed with Tintin and Captain Haddock’s conversation.
2) 25/TaAA/Yeurgh/Psycho
Yeurgh in this comic is used to express of distasteful chewing gum.
So, Captain Haddock finds a chewing gum given by Abdullah. He is so
excited to taste the chewing gum, however when he tastes it he yells
yeurgh. He does not like the taste because it is pepper instead of a chewing
gum.
3) 42/TaTP/PFOUAGH/Psycho
PFOUAGH is an onomatopoeia used to describe the distasteful of
beverage. Captain Haddock pours some whisky for him and Tintin but
unfortunately Tintin refuses it. Some times after he drinks the whisky, he
suddenly throws it out of his mouth. He realizes that what he just drank is
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not whisky. It is cleaning liquid.
4) 31/TaAA/AAAAH/Psycho
Onomatopoeia AAAAA is used to express pain in this comic. Mr.
Akkas Edendine (Rastapopulus) feels that he has been able to beat Tintin.
However, Snowy (Tintin’s dog) and Captain Haddock come to save Tintin.
Even, Snowy bites Mr. Akkas Edendine so he screams AAAAH to express
the pain.
5) 51/TaP/eeek/Psycho
Onomatopoeia eeek happens when Captain gets surprised after he
feels something creeping under his jersey. Apparently, it is an ell from the
stream.
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Onomatopoeia is a universal phenomenon in language since it can be found
in almost all languages. Onomatopoeia can be found in various literary works
including comics. Onomatopoeia is a representation of sound which is manifested
in the form of graphics/writing as sound effects in comic. Onomatopoeia is widely
used in comics and magazines because of its effectiveness in producing good
sound effects in these media.
In this study, the writers found three types of onomatopoeia in the English
version of the Tintin comic, namely phonomime onomatopoeia (29 data),
phenomime onomatopoeia (12 data) and psychomime onomatopoeia (10 data).
Phonomime onomatopoeia appears in the form of animal sounds (toc toc, woo
woo), object sounds (ring ring, knock knock, vroomm) and human voices (zzz,
mmm). Phenomime onomatopoeia appears in the form of describing actions, and
describing appearances, situations, states, and conditions such as (glug glug,
smack, sniff, clap, etc). Meanwhile phsychomime onomatopoeia appears in
expressing annoyance, shocking, and pain (aaah, aargh,eek, etc) . The most
dominant onomatopoeia found is phonomime onomatopoeia. The simple way to
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create onomatopoeia is by imitating sound of animal, object or human, so there is
more phonomime onomatopoeia compared with two other kinds of onomatopoeia.
This research finding also shows that same onomatopoeia may serves
different description. The example is Bang that is used for three different sound
description such as gun shooting, explosion, as well as collision. On the other
hand, this research also finds that different onomatopoeia may also describe the
same object, action, etc. The example is Bang bang, pof pof, paf paf, rat tat tat that
are used to describe the sound gun shooting. Meanwhile, the sound of knocking
door describes with three different onomatopoeias such as Knock knock, Toc Toc,
Rat Rat.
Most of the study of onomatopoeia focuses on its types. Probably the next
researchers can focus on other topics such as onomatopoeia as speech acts.
Onomatopoeia is a part of language which serves main function as a means of
communication, so onomatopoeias consist of speech acts. Additionally, other
researchers may also study onomatopoeia based on the study of translation because
each language has its own onomatopoeia. Last but not least, other researchers may
also study to find out the difference use of onomatopoeias that describe the same
object, action, etc. Let’s say what is the difference of pof pof pof, bang bang, paf
paf paf, rat tat tat as a gun shooting onomatopoeia? Does it depend on the size of
the gun? Does it depend on the speed of shooting? Or does it depend on the sound
produced by the gun.
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