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WingsToDiscovery (Offline)
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Onomatopoeia - 01-21-2011, 09:09 AM

I'm doing a study on differences between Japanese and English onomatopoeia, and I was wondering if some of the seasoned Japanese speakers have any insight on some not so common, yet not so obscure onomatopoeias in the Japanese language.
For example, I know "Nya versus Meow" for cats.
So I'm not looking for things that obvious/easy, but just if there are any ones that aren't used that regularly but are still good to know, it would be great if you could list them. Thanks.


I'm not a cynic; I just like to play Devil's Advocate once in a while.
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yuriyuri (Offline)
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01-21-2011, 09:17 AM

I don't really know very many onomatopoeia in Japanese so I can't really help you out myself.

But perhaps this spreadsheet could help you out?
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...xw&hl=en#gid=0

I got the link from this post, in case you are interested:
Kanji lists, Joyo, non-joyo etc. (Sticky topic) - Reviewing the Kanji - Learning Japanese
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01-21-2011, 11:58 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery View Post
I'm doing a study on differences between Japanese and English onomatopoeia, and I was wondering if some of the seasoned Japanese speakers have any insight on some not so common, yet not so obscure onomatopoeias in the Japanese language.
For example, I know "Nya versus Meow" for cats.
So I'm not looking for things that obvious/easy, but just if there are any ones that aren't used that regularly but are still good to know, it would be great if you could list them. Thanks.
Oh god, there are ~loooaaads~. Some i've put in romaji as i'm not sure of the spelling. I don't often see these written down.

Animal noises:
woof わん!
neigh kind of like 'hiheen'
oink ぶうーぶうー
baaa めええ
cheep ぴ or ぴよ
roar がお
yip(as in a fox noise) こん (which I think is bizarre, because no fox I ever heard goes こん)
squeak (as in a mouse) ちゅう
caw カー
ribbit ribbit けろけろ
moo もう
quack が〜 
hoot (as in owl) hu


し〜ん is kind of like the sound of silence. A pause in conversation or the muffled sound of thickly falling snow is し〜ん し〜ん

きらきら is the sound for things sparkling, like diamonds or sunshine on water, which is fairly well-known.

Fwa Fwa is being light headed, say when you're a bit drunk.
ぺこぺこ is being peckish
わくわく is excitement. crowds waiting for a celebrity get わくわく kids at a toy shop get わくわく
イライラ is to be crank or irritated.
ぺらぺらis fluency, particularly in language. My English is ぺらぺら
モチモチis a fun one. It means a clingy sort of couple, like two mochi sticking together. It's not especially in a dirty sort of way, but more like a couple who are forever holding hands and cuddling. Not sure how common this one is.
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