The article is devoted to the revealing and analysis of onomatopoeic-illustrative vocabulary in the unwritten Chamalal language. As a result of a thorough analysis onomatopoeic and phonosemantic words, which are divided into various semantic groups, are revealed. The stems of descriptive words with derivational affixes and without them are defined, substantives, adjectives and verbs are formed from ideophonic stems. The morphological characteristic is given: there are monosyllabic and disyllabic onomatopoeic words. Key words and phrases: чамалинский язык, нахско-дагестанская семья языков, мимемы, звукоподражание, звукосимволика, the Chamalal language, Nakh-Dagestan family of languages, onomatopoeic words (mimemas), onomatopoeia, sound symbolism.