by The Luluest – translated byt Juniper
Dear Waldians,
this time things are going to be easier than expected. No unusual discoveries, no pindaric flights to the dawn of this or that phenomenon, no unexpected, enjoyable adventures. We go back to our Waldian essence, and we simply talk about the pure joy of learning a foreign language.
As many of you may already know, learning a new language is an exciting, frustrating, fun, but also demanding journey. Moreover, it could be a long endeavor, or a short one.
Despite all of this, every time we start learning a new language (be it even to be left behind at the first lexicon-grammatical problem), the experience is going to stay with us forever, for good and for worse, teaching us to see the world from a different perspective.
When a language arouses our curiosity, intrigues and thrills us, when we overcome the many obstacles on the way, and after having paid our dues to consistency and patience, we come to the place where every discovery is a pleasure and a lively exaltation.
So, today, Waldo would like to talk about a topic which may look secondary, and across which he came during his Japanese journey…and which made him pass an afternoon of silly laughter and great admiration: onomatopoeia.
Parrot it
In every existing language, onomatopoeia are those words that describe or derive from a sound and reproduce it back, even if in a drafty way sometimes.
The Japanese language is rich in onomatopoeia, there are a lot of them, sacks of them; but while their use is considered childish in Italian and English (after all we have specific words to describe sounds, why don’t we use them, instead of parroting?), in Japanese they are well esteemed and widespread.
To be honest, Waldo likes this position about onomatopoeia; is there a more iconic and cleaner way to speak, if not by faithfully reproducing what one hears?
Oh yes, Japanese onomatopoeia can be used to express every and each thing: sounds, natural events, situations, actions, feelings, and much more. As there are so many, Japanese people, well organized as usual, divided and structured them into competence groups under the realms of adverbs.
Now, all we have to do is to climb up this loud grammar structure and give you the best of Waldo’s collection.
Words imitating sounds
Where to start, if not with the quintessential onomatopoeia, i.e. animal noises? Notoriously different from one language to the other, the Japanese ones do not let you down, and belong to a group of onomatopoeia called giseigo 擬声語 (words imitating voices).
Thus we have the dog going wanwanわんわん, but when he is very angry he goes kyankyanきゃんきゃん; the cat goes nyannyan にゃんにゃん, the crow kaakaaかあかあ. We couldn’t miss, of course, the animals of the farm: moomooもうもう goes the cow, meemeeめえめえthe sheep, and, without any reasonable explanation, buubuuぶうぶう goes the pig (may it derive from the Japanese word for pig, buta豚?).
To be precise, these giseigo onomatopoeia are under the jurisdiction of the giongo 擬音語 onomatopoeia (words imitating sounds), the ones used to describe natural events.
Rain and wind are the main characters of these group. The first one could fall in “first tiny drops” (potsupotsuぽつぽつ), be a “silent drizzle” (shitoshitoしとしと), be “intense and pouring down” (zaazaaざあざあ), or turn into “slowly and soft falling snow” (haraharaはらはら). The wind, on the other hand, can be a “pleasant breeze” (soyosoyoそよそよ), a “violent blow” (fyuufyuuふゅうふゅう), “strong” (pyuupyuuぴゅうぴゅう), or “raging” (byuubyuuびゅうびゅう).
Particularly suggestive are also the acts of “gently rolling” (korokoroころころ), which may turn into a “proper rolling” (gorogoroごろごろ), or a “tapping” (tontonとんとん) turning into a “non-stopping and furious hitting” (dondonどんどん).
Words imitating expressions
Another big family of onomatopoeia are the gitaigo 擬態語 (words imitating expressions), which are used to convey symbolically what is described in words, for example the “stars sparkling (figuratively, too) dazzling” (kirakiraきらきら), or “less intensively” (pikapikaぴかぴか).
In this family there are two big guys: the giyōgo擬容語 onomatopoeia (words imitating form) and the gijōgo擬情語 (words imitating feelings). The first are used to describe physical actions and situations, the second to convey feelings and emotions.
Words imitating actions
Some giyōgo are made up of similar sounds, but have different meanings: “to act immediately and decisively” (sassatoさっさと) does not mean “to do something diligently” (sessetoせっせと). In the same way, “to act clearly” (hakkiriはっきり) is different from “to be solid” (shikkariしっかり), and “to act punctually” (kicchiriきっちり) does not mean “to act precisely” (kichintoきちんと).
Other giyōgo refer to external situations, such as “a mess with broken object” (mechakuchaめちゃくちゃ) or simply “a mess with misplaced objects” (gochagochaごちゃごちゃ). Others refer to our bodies, for example when we have “an annoying sensation of having something stuck on our body” (betabetaべたべた), or “the certainty of having something stuck on our bodies” (betobetoべとべと).
Obviously, some of the most used giyōgo are those about our basic needs.
“Being hungry” (pekopekoぺこぺこ) could be solved with a “single bite” (pakuriぱくり), or “by eating as if there were no tomorrow” (pakupakuぱくぱく). “Thirst” (karakaraからから) could be quenched by “sipping little by little” (chibichibiちびちび) or “all in one shot” (gokugokuごくごく).
Even a laughter could be a “happy one” (nikonikoにこにこ), “sweet and spontaneous” (niccoriにっこり), a “chuckle” (niyaniyaにやにや, not at all by chance similar to the cat noise…), “up one’s sleeve” (kusukusuくすくす), “noisy” (gerageraげらげら – incidentally, the noise of the frog), or “thundering” (hahahaははは).
Crying is not less amazing! It could be “desperately manly” (oioiおいおい), “quietly feminine” (shikushikuしくしく), or “childish” (mesomesoめそめそ), and even the tears can “make a sound when falling slowly” (horohoroほろほろ).
Words imitating feelings
All the above mentioned onomatopeia regarded real-life situations or actions…how many gijōgo may exist for feelings and sentiments? A plethora, of course!
In this situation, though, for parsimony’s sake, Waldo will describe only everyday situations, with the help of his favorite gijōgo.
Each of us can be “busy and seized by the many engagements” (dotabataどたばた), and this could make us feel “anxious” (orooroおろおろ) till we get “palpitations out of tension or fatigue” ” (dokidokiどきどき).
Because of this, we could feel “resentful and grieved” (kuyokuyoくよくよ), “disappointed” ” (gakkariがっかり), or even“irritated” (irairaいらいら), so much so that we “feel like throwing up out of rage” (mukamukaむかむか).
Very often things end up well, so that we can feel “relieved when boredom ends” (sukkiriすっきり), or “relieved by a happy ending” (hottoほっと), therefore we can “enjoy the pleasure of food and good weather”, or even be “enchanted by the beauty of something” (uttoriうっとり).
To sum it up, we could feel “happy, in a good mood” (ukiukiうきうき) again and “be perfectly fit” (pinpinぴんぴん)!
Not only peraperaぺらぺら
This is only a first small taste of the onomatopoeia that Waldo found in his never ending adventure under the banner of the Japanese language.
Thanks to these wee words, so simple, and despite it all so effective and immediate in representing verbally the world around us, he felt again that joy of the first enthusiasm that goes hand in hand with learning a foreign language: everything is new, a first meeting, some things do not make any sense, others already have a special place in our heart.
Even if learning a new language is never simple, and Waldo cannot speak Japanese peraperaぺらぺら (fluently), these little discoveries are worth the effort, the frustration, the necessary consistency, and help us spend a cheerful afternoon.
As Waldo’s articles do, after all.
Sources
“Grammatica giapponese” di Matilde Mastrangelo, Naoko Ozawa, et al., 2016
