Scientific study of onomatopoeia

Research has shown that onomatopoeic words activate brain regions involved in the processing of verbal and non-verbal sounds. Imitation is a fundamental biological mechanism for learning and generating behavior. But how are non-human sounds translated into speech, as in onomatopoeia, given the anatomical constraints of the vocal system? Marcos Alberto Trevisan and his co-workers at the University of Buenos Aires address this question in a scientific study modeling voice generation based on anatomical parameters. PLoS ONE: The Anatomy of Onomatopoeia:

'via Blog this'

Onomatopoeia in advertisement

"Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is"
(Alka Seltzer in the 50's and 60's) Watch the commercial

Pow

"One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!"
(Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners, 50's tv series)

Wub is the new oonse

Wub wub wub, nehnehweeh, YOI YOI YOI WAHBWUHB

The sounds of dubstep, a genre in electronic dance music. Pretty popular on the internet, so now and then you run into these onomatopoeia. Oonse or untz is an onomatopoeia imitative of the repetitive beat in rave music. Dubstep is newer than rave, therefore 'wub is the new oonse'.

Dubstep | Know Your Meme: "signature repetitive bass"
Dubstep by Datsik
dubstep beatboxer

Ah-hoo-gah! Old car horns

Hear the funny sounds of antique automobile horns. The 1912 Pierce-Arrow has that awesome cartoonesque sound, definitely a winner. If you ever hear it in real life (many hot-rods have them too) some of them are loud and you immediately recognize it. Here's another website with car-horns by the Antique Automobile Club of America, and a video of a model-A: Renfroe's Model A Aooga horn.
Thanks Doug!