Word Formation and Sound Symbolism: Evidence from African Languages

Dear Colleagues,

We invite submissions for this Special Issue dedicated to exploring the relationship between word formation processes and sound symbolism across languages. This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research that examines how morphological structures interact with phonological form to create meaning, with particular attention to cross-linguistic patterns and typological diversity.

Sound symbolism, broadly understood as the non-arbitrary relationship between sound and meaning, has gained renewed attention in linguistics, cognitive science, and related disciplines. At the same time, research on word formation continues to reveal the complexity of morphological processes such as derivation, compounding, reduplication, and blending. This Special Issue seeks to bridge these domains by examining how sound symbolic principles are encoded, constrained, and exploited in word formation across different linguistic systems.

We welcome contributions from a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives in linguistics.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (haabubakari@ug.edu.gh/alexander.angsongna@univie.ac.at) or to Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Topics of interest include:

• The role of sound symbolism in derivation, compounding, and reduplication;
• Iconicity and phonosemantics in morphological processes;
• Cross-linguistic and typological studies of sound symbolic word formation;
• Ideophones and expressive morphology;
• The interface between phonology, morphology, and semantics;
• Experimental and corpus-based approaches to sound symbolism;
• Sound symbolism in under-documented and endangered languages.

Submission Guidelines:

• Full papers should be between 7000 and 10,000 words (including references).
• All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review.
• Manuscripts should follow the instructions listed at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/instructions.

Tentative Completion Schedule:

• Abstract submission deadline: 30 June 2026
• Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2026
• Full manuscript submission deadline: 30 August 2026
• Expected publication: 30 December 2026

Dr. Alexander Angsongna
Dr. Hasiyatu Abubakari
Prof. Dr. Adams Bodomo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• word formation
• sound symbolism
• African languages