The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists SPRING 2026 The Linguist 9 FEATURES several morphological rules intrinsic to the language, would never appear in standard Italian prose, yet they thrive on the comic page. Others arise from playful truncations of Italian verbs: sbatt (from sbattere, 'to slam') steps in for the English 'slam'; ronf (from ronfare, 'to snore') replaces 'snore'; spalanc (from spalancare, 'to open wide') signals a sudden window opening. These clipped forms imitate the consonant final punch associated with English onomatopoeia – a style Italian readers may perceive as more immediate due to the monosyllabic nature of many English words. They are some of the clearest examples of how translators and artists jointly expand the boundaries of a language. In all these scenarios, the translator of comics becomes a mediator between sensory worlds. The task is not to find a literal equivalent but to recreate an effect. Does the noise surprise? Does it amuse? Does it slow the reader down or speed them up? Does it guide the eye across the panel? All these questions must be considered in order to rebuild what I like to call the 'acoustic architecture' of the target text. What this teaches us is that comics, far from being trivial, offer a sophisticated arena for linguistic play. Onomatopoeias and ideophones are not peripheral embellishments but structural elements that often dictate the pace and narrative flow of the page. They show how language can be stretched and reshaped when storytelling demands it. And they remind us that translation, at its most creative, is as much about listening as it is about reading. Translators thus become co-creators, shaping how readers 'hear' a story in a different language. These choices may seem small but are deeply meaningful. It is clear that, in the world of comics, every noise deserves full listening. CHOICE WORDS Comics in English (left) and Indonesian (above) show a range of onomatopoeic words, including 'whump' and guk CIUF CIUF! LINGUISTIC EXPERIMENTATION Translators face not only the challenge of reproducing these sensory words but also the visual density the clusters bring to the page, and whether the whole ensemble works in the target text – sometimes even in terms of the physical space available. Comics invite this kind of linguistic experimentation because ideophones interact as much with images as they do with words. When a trembling 'rrrr' is rendered in jagged lettering on the strip, the noise becomes inseparable from typography. A reader 'hears' the earthquake before noticing the crack in the ground. In my corpus, lettering choices were as crucial as phonology: stretched vowels for creaking doors, spiky consonants for scratching noises, tiny fonts for distant sounds. Here sound meets spatial design, showing how intrinsic the relationship between text and image is in multimodal works. Translators are then faced with decisions that may seem innocuous but can radically change how readers in another language interpret the action in front of them. A mistranslated 'crack' placed awkwardly in a panel can silence a moment that is meant to resonate. One of the characteristics that makes comic-book sound symbolism so rich is its resistance to semantic stability. These words reveal how flexible languages can be, especially when dealing with the more unpredictable and sensorial corners of expression. A single ideophone can adopt multiple meanings: 'zzz' – famously used to indicate sleeping characters – is also used to depict boiling liquid. Ciuf ciuf, the Italian counterpart to 'choo choo', can refer to both trains and rockets. And certain events can be expressed through a range of forms: arf, bau and growl all appear in Italian strips to represent a barking dog. RONF! CHANGING LANGUAGE IN USE Italian comic translations have also played a surprising role in shaping the modern lexicon. Several English forms have entered Italian dictionaries thanks to their long- standing presence in comics. 'Gulp' and 'gasp' are clear examples, now fully naturalised in Italian and adapted to Italian phonetic conventions – gulp, for instance, is often pronounced 'goolp'. Even 'mumble' has taken on a new life. Originally referring to indistinct speech, it has come to express confusion or even frustration in Italian comics, and is now used orally by Italian speakers as an everyday interjection. This shows the extent to which comic-book sound symbolism influences and shapes language in use – a fascinating form of language contact that has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Neology, the creation of new words, also plays a crucial role in this ecosystem. When Italian lacks an equivalent form, artists and translators simply create one. Some inventions, such as pfui, pfuff, pfing, tlac, sgnac, are purely phonotactic experiments. These forms, while breaking IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

• Cover