Keigo, Causative-passive, Ageru&Morau&Kureru... There are many characteristic grammars in Japanese language.
And I believe that we cannot forget “onomatopoeia” if we talk about what can be a “significant” grammar of Japanese.
(By the way, the origin of the word “onomatopoeia” is Ancient Greek language, then Japanese import from French language. Japanese words for onomatopoeia are; Gion-go, Gitai-go and Gisee-go. On means sound, Tai in this case can be translated as situation/condition/state, and See means Voice.)
There are millions of onomatopoeia in Japanese, and they describe a lot, like sound, voice and even situation.
I cannot talk about all of them in one short blog, so this time, I focus on “voice (/call /cry...)” of animals.
Because I believe that many language have this kind of onomatopoeia.
Dogs barking in English: Bowwow. In Japanese, they say Wan Wan.
Cats are Nyaa or Nyan.
I listed some “voices” below. Please guess what animals' voice are they.
The answer is the last part of this blog post.
Do you agree the Japanese sounds? Or do you think they are too strange?
- Mee
- Moo
- Hi hii n
- Chuu
- Gaoo
- Piyo piyo
- Pa oo n
- Ko ke ko kkoo
