Japanese Onomatopoeia: What Did You Say?

One of the more baffling aspects of the Japanese language, at least to foreigners, is the unusually long list of "onomatopoeia" used to describe a variety of sounds in everyday life.

In English, we have a few words to describe sounds, mostly animal noises (such as a dog saying "woof") or a mechanical sound like an alarm clock "beep"-ing. Japan's list goes much, MUCH further, to describe everything from animals to emotions. Some words even have more than one meaning to cover different situations.

Westerners have been exposed to this list mostly through manga, as various sounds and facial expressions are elaborated on using onomatopoeia. JapanSugoi has compiled a list that shows the more common words found in Japanese, particularly manga.

JapanesePod101 is also currently airing a series on YouTube that explains a few phrases, such as this one.