One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions.
Source: wiktionary
Echoism
Synonyms for "echoism" (2 found)
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Closest matches (1)
Related words (1)
Noun(1 words)
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Sample sentences
2 total sentences available.
That is the simple account of the motivation for the phenomenon of sound symbolism or echoism.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.