rarissimum 27

rarissimum 27: place of articulation of vowels exploited for iconic expression of size (e.g., for diminutives), but with [high, front] expressing large size and [low, back] small size

Where found

Korean (isolate); Bahnar (Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic)

Domain

lexicon, phonology

Subdomain

sound-meaning matching: iconicity

Keywords

vowel, place of articulation, size, iconicity

Type

rarissimum

Universals violated

not yet in UA: [high, front] ‘large size’, [low, back] ‘small size’

Source

Kim, K-O. (1977). Sound symbolism in Korean. Journal of Linguistics 13: 67-75.
Diffloth, Gérard (1994). i: big, a: small. In Leanne Hinton, Johanna Nichols, & John Ohala (eds.), Sound Symbolism, 107-114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.