English

Noun

echoism ‎(countable and uncountable, plural echoisms)

1. The practice of creating words or language by imitating sounds from the environment.
   • 1999, Marcel Danesi, Paul Perron, Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook, page 139:

     One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions.

   • 2011, Karl Bühler, Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language:

     That is the simple account of the motivation for the phenomenon of sound symbolism or echoism.