A Sound Word Almanac

This almanac of sound words important to artists and scholars highlights words that expand the way we speak (and write) about sonic experiences.
Why write about sound, and how? If sonic philosophy is the attempt "to think about sound by philosophical means," then a metaphilosophical debate appears almost immediately on the horizon: What is called for is an understanding about sound and language, but also about the preconditions of musical understanding. What is at stake is the question of language and sound, as well as expanding how we speak about sonic experience.
This almanac tackles these questions from artistic, experimental and personal perspectives. An assemblage of nearly 70 practitioners and theoreticians, artists and scholars offer their favorite 'sound word.' These sound words are onomatopoetical, mythological, practical; words of personal importance to the artists and their craft; words from their memory, related to sound. Many entries are not in English - some are untranslatable - and all are accompanied by a personal, explanatory, poetic entry. These are words that have the potential to change our perspective on listening-musicking-thinking.

Bernd Herzogenrath is Professor of American literature and culture at Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author of An Art of Desire: Reading Paul Auster (1999) and An American Body|Politic: A Deleuzian Approach (2010) and editor of The Farthest Place: The Music of John Luther Adams (2012) and Deleuze|Guattari & Ecology (2009). His latest publications include the collections The Films of Bill Morrison. Aesthetics of the Archive (2017), Film as Philosophy (2017), and Practical Aesthetics (Bloomsbury, 2020).

List of Illustrations
Contributors
Mission Statement
Alec Finlay
Ääni (Finnish)
Petri Kuljuntausta
[adeukan] (Korean), adjective
Suk-Jun Kim
"ALAAF!" (German)
Peter Kiefer
BIM BAM (Czech)
Iva Bittová
Bla (Spanish)
Mikel R. Nieto
Boori (Nightingalese)
David Rothenberg
Brummkreisel (German)
Siegfried Karcher
BWO (Slovak)
Dalibor Kocian
clang clang (Tintinese)
Bernd Herzogenrath
'dåm' (Norwegian)
Maja S. K. Ratkje
Dhyam kura kur ? (Bengali/Bangla)
Soaham Mandal
Flokje (Norwegian)
Ingebjørg Loe Bjørnstad
Geroezemoes (Dutch)
Rutger Zuyderveld
Goception
Daniel Wilson
[goyo] (Korean), noun
Suk-Jun Kim
Hea (Yanomami)
Stephen Vitiello
inaudível e inaudito (Portuguese)
Herbert Baioco
Klang (Norwegian)
Ulf A. S. Holbrook
Knurr (Norwegian)
Jana Winderen
Kropsresonans (Danish, body-resonance)
Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen
Lod (Slovak)
Dalibor Kocian
MA'TOSH (Hebrew)
Anat Pick
Minn (Scottish)
Alec Finlay
Mololi (Sesetho)
Mpho Molikeng
mpfft [mpft] ( )
Ingeborg Entrop
Musicistica (Italian)
Lucia D'Errico
[Mistral] (Greek)
Tania Giannouli
Namaroku (Japanese)
Tomotaro Kaneko
napevalka (Russian)
Jelena Glazova
Nuppe Nappe (Dva original)
Barbora Ungerová
Nuscheln (German) verb. Translation: to mumble, to mutter.
Malte Kobel
OM (Sanskrit)
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
"ÖÖ" (Estonian)
Robert Jürjendal
ørenlyd (Danish)
Jacob Eriksen
otonai (Japanese)
Kazuhiri Jo & Maho Fujimoto
Patasurréalisme (French)
David Nadeau
Pflotsch (Swiss German)
Johannes Binotto
Parafonie (Dutch)
Mark van Tongeren
Psyphony (English)
Daniel Wilson
Ragaireacht (Irish)
Jimmy Eadie
Rauschen (German)
Pia Palme
Retinir (re-ti-nir) (Portuguese)
Inês R. Amado
Ritselen (Dutch)
Esther Venrooij
Roar (Yorkshire dialect)
Mark Fell
Sähinä (Finnish)
J-T Vesikkala Wittmacher
Schwup (Swiss-German)
Salomé Voegelin
Schlierig (German)
Holger Schulze
Schwätza (Swabian: to chat, to gabble, to talk, to speak)
Friedemann Dupelius
Ssssshhhh (English)
Lawrence English
Skoskespringe (Dutch)
Jan Kleefstra
sniokStimas (Lithuanian)
Daiva Steponaviciene
So'kout (Persian)
Yashar Valakjie
sup (Czech)
David Livingstone
Tapedropping
Daniel Wilson
Thuy (Vietnamese)
Nguyen Thanh Thuy
Ti (Turkish)
Ilgin Deniz Akseloglu
Tjöh! (Meänkieli and Lule Sámi)
Torbjörn Ömalm
TOPOT (Russian)
Andrey Logutov
T'sé (Québecois)
Mitchell Akiyama
[Tz-lil] (Hebrew)
Eyal Hareuveni
uid uid (Racoonese)
Lasse-Marc Riek
Undu (Icelandic)
Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir
Vah vah
Korhan Erel
Vårløsning (Norwegian)
Paul H. Amble
Vómvos (Greek)
Dimitrios Bormpoudakis
vyhrávat (Slovak)
Dano Solontay
[yúan fèn] (Chinese)
Lane Shi Otayonii
Zaghrouta (Arabic Dialect)
Selwa Abd (Bergsonist)
Zeitkratzer (German)
Reinhold Friedl
zompig (Dutch)
Ingeborg Entrop
Index