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English
Etymology
From echo + -ism.
Noun
echoism (countable and uncountable, plural echoisms)
- 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.