In Gbaya, the notion of the shriveling of skin onto bones is emphasized in Lamentations 4:8 with ɓak-ɓak, an ideophone that means to be tied or held very tightly.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
See also tongue clings to the roof of mouth,
The interconfessional Chichewa translation (publ. 1999) uses the ideophone / intensifier kaone in Song of Songs 1:4 at the end of the phrase “all the women love you,” resulting in a meaning like “all the women adore you — indeed they do!” or “all the young women are crazy about you — just look at them!” (Source: Ernst Wendland)
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Gbaya, the notion of the large Goliath onto the ground in 1 Samuel 17:49 is emphasized with the ideophone rum, which refers to the collapse of a large animal or a person falling heavily.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
June F. Dickie reports this about a performance of the fight between David and Goliath in Hebrew (in: Verbum et Ecclesia 2021 ): “The text says that Goliath ‘fell on his face to the ground.’ In a performance of this story, the audience and actors physically saw Goliath’s body lying on the floor in front of David, making it appear as if Goliath was showing abeyance and serving David, a dramatic reversal of Goliath’s taunt in 1 Samuel 17:9. Such insights often only become apparent as one physically acts out the story. As Jeff Barker (2020) observed, ‘Great drama makes the unseen see-able.'”
In Gbaya, the notion of leaving the beaten man behind in Luke 10:30 is emphasized with tɔ̀kɔ̀rɔ̀, an ideophone that expresses the act of abandoning something, such as a corpse, or of being abandoned.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Gbaya, the notion of being in ambush is emphasized in Psalms 64:4 with ɓútútú, an ideophone that describes being well hidden.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Gbaya, the notion of scorching heat is emphasized in Lamentations 5:10 with fatiti, an ideophone that describes intense heat.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Gbaya, the notion of a lot of slain bodies is emphasized in Ezekiel 6:13 with kémbéŋ-kémbéŋ, an ideophone that designates people or objects piled up in uncountable quantities.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. (Source: Philip Noss)
In Gbaya, the notion of “crimson” in Song of Songs 4:3 is emphasized with mít-mít, an ideophone used to describe something dark with a striking beauty like a precious stone.
Ideophones are a class of sound symbolic words expressing human sensation that are used as literary devices in many African languages. Since the subject matter of Songs of Songs is particularly conducive to the use of ideophones, there are a total of 30 ideophones in the Gbaya Bible in that short biblical book alone. (Source: Philip Noss)