Japanese Onomatopoeia

8/12/2019 Japanese Onomatopoeia

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Japanese Onomatopoeia

http://nihonshock.com/2013/04/japanese-onomatopoeia/

Onomatopoeia. That’s a big scary term with a much less daunting

meaning: any word that mimics a sound. In English, onomatopoeia

consists of words like “boom”, “pop”, and “cock-a-doodle-do”.

Of course, Japanese also has onomatopoeia (which they call 擬態語 :

ぎたいご). They have LOTS of it, and not just silly comic book

sounds either. If you’ve been studying Japanese for more than a

couple weeks, you probably already know a couple:ちょっと

(alittle) is an onomatopoeia, and so is ちゃんと (correctly, obediently)

and ゆっくり (slowly). Sometimes we don’t even think of those

words as onomatopoeia, but they are.

Even a certain lightning-wielding, yellow mouse character’s name

turns out to be a simple fusion of sounds which means “sparkle-

squeak” (actually, I think I like the English name better…). Anyway,

my point is there’s so much onomatopoeia in Japanese that it will

make your head spin (the sound for dizziness would be くらくら, by

the way).



In fact, Japanese has so much onomatopoeia that they use them to

describe all sorts of things, many of which (like dizziness) don’t

actually make a sound. Maybe that seems strange, but we have

some very similar words in English too, for example “dilly-dally” or “wishy-washy”. Just try to imagine if there were literally hundreds

of words like that, and that on a given day you’d probably hear,

read or use at least 50 of them.

Yet despite how common onomatopoeia are and how important they

are for things such as casual conversation or reading fiction, they

seem to be regarded as irrelevant by a lot of teachers and teaching

materials. Common ones are taught as adverbs and that’s about it.

The common perception among native Japanese speakers is that

these words are “easy” because all they do is convey a sound. No

kanji = easy.

Well I’ve got news for the native speakers: these words are NOT

easy and they DO require special attention. It’s exactly because

these words are not tied to kanji that they take on multiple,sometimes unrelated meanings and develop their own peculiar

nuances and usage quirks (I seem to remember Japanese speakers

complaining about this aspect of English vocabulary, no?). No kanji

= less restrictions on usage = more vagueness and confusion.

In this article, I’m going to attempt to give readers a framework for

understanding and using onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia Forms

The first thing that you need to know is that there are three basic

forms an onomatopoeia can take.



Not all words can take all the forms (the three examples above are

actually more flexible than most). Also, sometimes different forms

of the same onomatopoeia will have somewhat different meanings,

though they are usually either the same or strongly related. The

important thing is just to be aware that onomatopoeia in Japanese

(when used in a sentence) appear in one of these forms.

The second thing to know is that the particle you should associatewith onomatopoeia is と. One of と’s primary functions is to mark

quoted speech, such as in:

彼は “こんにちわ” と言った。

kare wa “konnichiwa” to itta.

He said “hello”.

But と also describes sounds in exactly the same way:

彼はごくごくと飲んだ。

kare wa gokugoku to nonda.

He drank making a gulping sound.

In fact, the と in the TO-ending words above

(にこっと、にやっと、こそっと) is the particle と. The particle is

actually built into the form (therefore, don’t add any other particle

when you use them).The Double and RI forms of onomatopoeia are trickier, as each word

has its own usage nuances. Some words will almost always come

with a と, some will always omit their と. As I’ll explain later, some

words are even treated similar to nouns and can be used with

http://nihonshock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/forms.png



particles like の and に, but the basic rule of thumb is: the particle to

use with an onomatopoeia is と (even though it is often omitted).

Pseudo-Onomatopoeia

One of the things that complicates the issue of learning

onomatopoeia is that in addition to words like ちょっと and ゆっくり,

which are so common that we don’t really think of them as

onomatopoeia, there are also words that sound like and which may

even be used like onomatopoeia, but aren’t.

You probably know a couple of these already too: いろいろ is an

example. For all intents and purposes, you could consider this word

an onomatopoeia, but its meaning is derived from the kanji (色々)

rather than the “sound” of the word. Other examples of this kind of

pseudo-onomatopoeia are 段々（だんだん） and 次々（つぎつぎ）.

Since these words aren’t really onomatopoeia, you have to be much

more careful about which particle you select (if any). The above-

mentioned three can all optionally take と, but others such as

まだまだ（未だ未だ）, 別々（べつべつ）, and 元々（もともと） can

never take と. Still others such as

堂々（どうどう）、延々（えんえん）、and 朗々（ろうろう）

will always appear with と. Don’t worry about remembering all the

specifics, just understand that not all words which sound like an

onomatopoeia are.And Japanese has one other another kind of fake onomatopoeia

which is made by doubling adjective or verb stems (~I form). The

meaning of the resulting word is dependent on the stem, so usually

these aren’t too hard to figure out. For example, 熱い (あつい – hot)

becomes 熱々（あつあつ） and 浮く(うく – to float/be cheerful)



becomes うきうき (in high spirits). These doubled-stem words are

kind of a middle-ground between “true” onomatopoeia and the

“pseudo-” ones which I mentioned above. Their usage is

fundamentally the same as true onomatopoeia, except that you’llnever find them in RI or -TO form.*

*: there is one exception that I know of: のびのび（伸びる） →

のんびり

Using Onomatopoeia

Okay, so now that you kind of have an idea what exactly an

onomatopoeia is in Japanese, it’s time to look at how to use them.

There’s four basic usage patterns that you will find onomatopoeia

in:

The reason onomatopoeia exist and the reason we use them is

to describe. But essentially there are two and only two things

http://nihonshock.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/usages.jpg



which onomatopoeia can describe: either an action/process or a

condition/state of being.

Which kind of description you are making affects the grammar you

will need, hence I have distinguished between “adverb” (describingan action/process) and “adjective” (describing the state/condition of

something) functions.

Individual onomatopoeia can be tightly restricted to one certain

usage, or they can have multiple meanings each with a different

usage, or they can have one core meaning that can be applied both

ways. This can be a headache for learners, but only if you take it

too seriously. Onomatopoeia are supposed to make sentences more

colorful, to add emotion and spice. They’re fun! Without

onomatopoeia, Japanese might as well be just one boring

newspaper article about stock prices and exchange rates. But

anyway, back to the topic…

The ADVERB usage (describing an action) is the default function of

an onomatopoeia and also the simplest. It’s simple because you juststick it in front of the verb you’re describing, and decide whether or

not to use と. Some words will require it, but in most cases it’s

optional.

In cases where it’s optional, adding the と helps bring out the aural

aspect of the word, so it’s less common in everyday speech and

more common in creative writing. Including と also helps prevent

word-order confusion if there’s something between your

onomatopoeia and your verb.

The ADJECTIVE usage (describing an object/condition) is actually a

specialized application of an adverb. Grammatically speaking, the



onomatopoeia wants to be an adverb, so we need to do some

linguistic acrobatics to make it modify a noun.

How do we turn an adverb into an adjective? We “format” it with

either とした or している. Don’t concern yourself with the meaning of

とした／している here because there really isn’t one, we’re just using

the formless verb する as an intermediary between our

onomatopoeia and our noun.

とした is kind of the “correct” way to make an adjective usage, and

している (usually abbreviated to してる) is the “casual” way, but

they’re both doing the same thing: taking a sound and “formatting”

it so that it can modify a noun.

Because constantly “formatting” onomatopoeia is kind of

inconvenient, a lot Adjective-natured onomatopoeia have developed

a different usage. An Onomatopoeia with a N-ADJECTIVE usage

can be used similarly to a noun. “N” is the perfect letter to

represent these words, not only because they have some similarities

to nouns, but because by happy coincidence they are mostly usedwith the particles の and に (and sometimes even な, like a NA-

Adjective).

Note that although these words have some grammatical similarities

to nouns, it usually doesn’t make any sense to use them as objects

(を). And if you find them with で , it’s probably actually the TE-form

of だ／です, not the particle で.

The SURU usage is very handy. You simply pair the onomatopoeia

with the “formless” verb する, and the resulting verb means “to

act/feel/occur/be” in whatever way is described by the

onomatopoeia. So for example, くらくら which I mentioned at the



beginning of the article describes dizziness and is used with する.

The typical usage of this is:

頭がくらくらしてる。

atama ga kurakura shiteru.

My head is spinning.

One important thing to note about the SURU usage of onomatopoeia

is it usually only makes intransitive verbs (verbs which don’t take

objects). To make these verbs transitive, you need to use the

causative form: させる. Therefore:

トムの頭をくらくらさせた。

Tom no atama o kurakura saseta.

I made Tom’s head spin.

Sure, you could consider these to be adverbs. But if an adverb

(such as どきどき) is used almost exclusively to describe one

particular verb (する), and that verb is basically meaningless,

wouldn’t it be more helpful just to think of it as a verb unit?

Common Double-form Onomatopoeia

Onomatopeia

Usage Meaning

いらいら SURU to be edgy/testy, ticked off

うろうろ SURU to wander about aimlessly, loiter

きらきら (various) shining/sparkling/glitter

くすくす ADV laughing/chuckling (quietly/bashfully)

ぐずぐず SURU To act lazy, slow, procrastinate

くるくる (various) spinning/turning – curly (hair)

こそこそ ADV/SURU(speaking) secretively, quietly

ぬるぬる ADJ wet and slippery, slimy

ねばねば ADJ sticky



じろじろ ADV staring fixatedly

じわじわ ADV steadily, without haste

すらすら ADV unimpeded, continuous, sleek

ぞくぞく SURU feeling a thrill/adrenaline rushもじもじ SURU acting antsy/squirmy

ばたばた ADV/SURUbusy, hurried, rushing from place to place

びくびく SURU to twitch, spasm

ふらふら ADV/SURUwoozy/unstable, swaying from side to side

ぼろぼろ N-ADJ ripped up (clothing), worn out, beat up

わくわく SURU to get nervous/anxious with anticipation

Common RI- and TO-form Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia Usage Meaning

がっかり SURU to be disappointed/let down

しっかり (various) firm/steadfast

たっぷり (various) more than enough/required

はっきり ADV/SURU clearly, plainly

ゆっくり ADV slowly

きっと ADV surely, without a doubtじっと ADV/SURU without moving/motionless

ちゃんと ADV properly, correctly, obediently

ちょっと ADV a little bit, somewhat

ぼーっと ADV/SURU to space out, be distracted

もっと ADV more

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Japanese Onomatopoeia