Monday, September 29, 2008

Part 5 Japanese sound symbolism

This article describes sound symbolic or mimetic words in the Japanese Language. Most languages have such words; for example, "bang", "zap", "ding", "slither", "pop", etc. in english. Sound symbolic words occur more often in Japanese (and Korean as well, although this article will only be concerned with the former) than in English—they are found in formal as well as vernacular language.

These words cannot be considered onomatopoeia. Many mimetic words in Japanese are for things that don't make any noise originally, most clearly demonstrated by しいんと shiinto, meaning "silently".

credits to wikipedia ..

examples:

じろじろ(と)[見る] = [see] intently (=stare)
jirojiro (to) miru

きらきら(と)[光る] = [shine] sparkling
kirakira (to) [hikaru]

ぎらぎら(と)[光る] = [shine] dazzling
giragira (to) [hikaru]

どきどき(と)する  = a throbbing heart
dokidoki (to) suru

しんと [する] = [be] quiet
shinto [suru]

ぴんぴん[している] = [being (doing)] lively
pinpin[shiteiru]


#credits to wikipedia



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

On Japanese sound-symbolism, check out this site:
The Ideophone: posts about Japanese

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