Japanese Sound Effects
Posted on 11. Oct, 2007 @ 6:29 pm by harvey in Books, Culture, Language Views: 851
じゃじゃん〜♪ A book compiling a lot of Japanese Sound Effects is available on J-List.
The Japanese words for the sounds that animals and other things make were always something that interested me, but never something I took the time to study seriously.
My current job in technical translation doesn’t bring many across my desk either… Other than ガチャ! for the sound of components “Click”-ing together anyway.
I remember way back when I was a youngin’ being floored by the fact that a roosters “cock-a-doodle-doo” is known as “koke-kokko”! In Japanese. “Koke-kokko??” It sounds nothing like that! I naively thought. Later when I knew enough Japanese to explain to my Japanese friends that in American English they say “cock-a-doodle-do”, it was my turn to be laughed at.
J-List has a book in-stock called Japanese Sound Effects that has lots of sound effects all in one place with great illustrations. Here is a scan of an excerpt from the animal section.
This frog page describes the sound of a jumping frog, it’s, “PYON!”. This “pyon” sound is also used at the end of 「うそ」, which means “lie”. It’s not on this page, but you can also tell some silly story, and then say, 「うそっピョーン!」 Which will convey, “I was just kidding!” – and will also make you sound like a elementary school kid.
Other than asking random Japanese people it’s pretty tough to look these sounds up, so this book looks like it could provide a bit of fun.
Does anyone have any favorite Japanese sound effects? Put them in the comments if you do, I’d love to hear!
I kind of like the sound that heavy rain makes… ZAAZAA 「ざあざあ」. Here is an explanation of ZAA ZAA on the web in Japanese.
Enjoy!
- Harvey
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http://www.victorymanual.com Alex
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Brian
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Alejandro
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bingobangoboy
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kaxxina
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http://ikimashokie.nutang.com Jess
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