Audubon

Helen Mae Innes was recently interviewed for an article in Audubon about warblish. The National Audubon Society is an American organization concerned with the conservation of birds and their habitats. Their journalist Jasper Davidoff interviewed Helen because of her research and forthcoming book about the topic Warblish, Chirpish, Ticktocklish, & Animapoepia. 

Warblish: onomatopoeic interpretations of a specific bird vocalisations using existing word(s), e.g. the California Quail says, ‘Chicago,’ or ‘Where are you?’ 

Helen completed her research about warblish as part of her PhD in creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington. She discovered that warblish is found all around the world in numerous languages, but it seems to be mostly an oral tradition and little has been written about it. She collected 1500 examples from 55 languages from a range of books including birding guides, novels, poetry, and memoirs. 

Audubon website