Questions tagged [sound-symbolism]

音象徴語. Japanese sound symbolism, i.e. the representation of sounds, states, or mannerisms using words such as どきどき or きらきら.

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What is this character in this SFX?

I know the first one but the second one... I've tried to hand write it and I've thought about other characters like ク, フ and レ, researched if there's any known SFX with these combinations but nothing (apart from ビク being "biku" but I don't think…
Alexandra
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How does atsui (あつい) sound like English 'hot'?

McWhorter, J. PhD Linguistics (Stanford). The Power of Babel (2003). p. 293 Bottom.   For example, the words in Thai for fire, die, and rim are faj, taaj, and rim, just by accident! Long lists have been composed of correspondences like this…
user30835
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What does something like 'ウオエエエエエ' express?

The context is that the character was in the middle of a long winded speech about something, then noticed their friends weren't paying attention, and got a super annoyed looked on their face, like this, before making the sound. Anyone know? Because…
Roy Fuentes
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What sound symbolism related to masturbation exist ?

Ideophones are words that stand for instance for physical sensation,psychological states or even abstract ideas. For instance: niko niko smile patan the sensation of slamming a door honobono the state of peacefullness kacha sensation of…
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'V' sound in Japanese

How do I get a V sound in Japanese? How do I write my name XAVIER Thank you in advance for your reply. Prasanna XD
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Are true sound words created

Do Anime and other casual writers try to make true sound words or just words similar to the emphatic words already existing in Japanese?- true some of those are fairly close to the real sounds but a lot aren't. Its obvious if its a dog they say ヲオフ…
user2617804
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