Sllt
Sllt
In Brief
Figure of speech. In two lovely passages, Aeolus
calls attention to a rich source of word-formation. Bloom
listens to sheets of paper being fed into the press: "Sllt.
The nethermost deck of the first machine jogged forward its
flyboard with sllt the first batch of quirefolded
papers. Sllt. Almost human the way it sllt to
call attention. Doing its level best to speak. That door too sllt
creaking, asking to be shut. Everything speaks in its own
way. Sllt." Later in the chapter, Professor MacHugh's
dental floss speaks: "He took a reel of dental floss from his
waistcoat pocket and, breaking off a piece, twanged it smartly
between two and two of his resonant unwashed teeth. / — Bingbang,
bangbang." Such details show Joyce's fondness for onomatopoeia,
words that sound like the things or actions they name.
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Onomatopoeia (ON-uh-mah-tuh-PEE-uh, from Greek onomos = name + poiein = to make) means making words by imitating sounds in the environment. This term from ancient rhetorical theory has become commonplace in English usage, but even if the term were not familiar the principle behind it would be readily apparent. Common speech is filled with words like hiccup, gargle, gulp, guzzle, slurp, tick-tock, ding-dong, clip-clop, buzz, bark, woof, meow, roar, howl, chatter, clatter, clang, crackle, clack, clink, cluck, crinkle, chirp, creak, croak, honk, toot, hum, squeak, squeal, screech, splash, splatter, slosh, snap, drop, drizzle, fizz, flap, rattle, whirr, whiz, whirl, whoosh, murmur, moan, wail, sniff, thump, thud, zip, and zoom.
Joyce would not be the great artist he is if he simply reproduced such idioms of common speech. Instead he has Bloom discover a new word, "sllt," as he stands listening to the machinery in the newspaper pressroom, and gives him a thought that was implicit in Calypso and will return in Sirens: "Everything speaks in its own way." As he stood in his kitchen, his cat's increasingly elaborate vocalizations––Mkgnao! Mrkgnao! Mrkrgnao!––expressed a growing demand to be fed and prompted Bloom to reflect that "They understand what we say better than we understand them." Sirens explores the notion that human beings are surrounded with supposedly inanimate things doing their best to make music. In Circe, the principle that caused a piece of dental floss to say "Bingbang, bangbang" causes other inanimate things to speak their minds. A trouserbutton pops off and goes "Bip!" An echo hears "Hurray for the High School" and replies, "Fool!" Yew trees say, "Ssh!"
