h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Japanese is particularly rich in Onomatopoeia. The Japanese word for Onomatopoeia is 'gi-on-go', literally imitating-sound-word, but they are always considered hand in hand with a second class of word called 'gi-tai-go', imitating-form-word, which can represent the "sound" of abstract concepts.

Of course, Japanese has equivalents for 'pow', 'bang', and 'crash' ('pan', 'ban', 'gon' etc.) and animal sounds 'wanwan' (dog woof-woof), 'nyao' (cat miao), 'chuu' (mouse squeak), 'hihiin' (horse whinny), 'moomoo' (cow, pronounced more-more), 'meemee' (sheep baa-baa, pronounced may-may).

It also has many more words, still clearly Onomatapoeic and concceptually close perhaps to say the English 'pitter-patter' for rain ('potsu-potsu' for light drizzle, 'para-para' for starting to rain, 'zaa-zaa' for cats and dogs). Examples include 'dota-bata' (noisy running), 'wai-wai' (general shouting), 'gaya-gaya' (general hubub), 'gata-gata' (rattling doors and windows), through to the pretty abstract 'shiiin', the "sound" of silence, e.g. in a comic book the silence after someone has entered a room unexpectedly.

But having established the sound of the absence of sound, Japanese continues without a break to litearlly hundreds of others like 'gasa-gasa' (the "sound" of being dry and itchy), 'yura-yura' (swaying in the wind) or 'kyoro-kyoro' (turning your neck this way and that to look around), 'boro-boro' (being old and tattered) each with their own unique meaning.

So just as we know Batman has puched has connected with the villain because it says 'biff' near his fist, and in a Japanese comic we know its raining hard outside because it says 'zaa-zaa' behind the window, we also know that an otherwise stationary character is looking around because it says 'kyoro-kyoro' by his head, or that anothers designer clothes are old and ragged because of the 'boro-boro's rising like fumes from her shoulder pads.

Thanks for this very interesting posting, Tatsuya. I was not familiar with this idea, and will bear it in mind in future.

I love the idea that you see "zaa-zaa" outside the window and you have a good idea not only that it is raining but how hard, and what kind of noise it is making. Cool!

Spiff