Japanese Onomatopoeia – Algorithm March

One of the things I like about the Japanese language is its wide variety of onomatopoeic and mimetic words. A lot of these words are used in daily conversation and literature (especially manga) and capture the essence of the sound or image that they’re trying to convey. Some of these words are quite hard to translate into English and are the bane of a translator’s existence. Others have English equivalents but many of these fail to match the beauty and simplicity of the original Japanese words.

It’s important to differentiate between the various types of onomatopoeia and mimetic words as they are not merely words which imitate sounds (such as the English ‘bark’ or ‘bang’). Giseigo (擬声語) are words which mimic human or animal sounds (e.g. laughing, crying, dogs barking, cats miaowing) while another type of onomatopoeia, giongo (擬音語), is used to mimic other sounds (e.g. the sound of thunder, a knock on the door). Mimetic words, gitaigo (擬態語), are different to giseigo and giongo in that they don’t mimic sounds, but rather they are used to convey a certain visual or sensory feeling (e.g. to show one is happy, to describe the way one walks, to convey the golden nature of blonde hair, to convey the softness of a pillow). Knowing how to use these words in everyday conversation or writing is one way to display your mastery of the Japanese language and add some spice to a story you may be telling to your friends or colleagues.

There are hundreds of onomatopoeic and mimetic words in use in modern Japanese. In this first installment of my Japanese Onomatopoeia series, I will look at the giseigo, giongo and gitaigo in the Algorithm March video and do my best to show how these words are used. I do want to add that the video was a song aimed at a very young audience so the onomatopoeiaa used may not be used in standard conversation!

きょろきょろ(kyorokyoro) :

Kyorokyoro (きょろきょろ) is a gitaigo used to convey the action of looking around in a restless manner. It can be used as a suru-verb and can be written in either hiragana (きょろきょろ) or katakana (キョロキョロ).

In the video, there’s the line 横に歩いてきょろきょろ(yoko ni aruite kyorokyoro), which means ‘walk sideways and look around’. Kyorokyoro describes the action that the actor on screen is doing at that point in the song, looking from left to right as if he’s about to cross the street.

Here’s another example of kyorokyoro in use :

部屋の中をきょろきょろと見ている　－ Looking around the inside of a room.

You can also use kyorokyoro to suggest that someone is looking this way and that way by using the expression あちこちをきょろきょろする (achi kochi o kyorokyoro suru).

シュウシュウ(shuu shuu) :

Shuu shuu (シュウシュウ) would fall under the category of giongo as it imitates the sound made by rushing air, almost like a ‘whoosh’ sound. I haven’t been able to find many examples of this giongo in use so I will just use the sentence used in the video.

空気入れますシュウシュウ (kuuki iremasu shuu shuu) which means ‘We’ll put air in (it), whoosh whoosh’ (空気　is air and 入れる means ‘to put in’ or ‘to insert’).

ピュウピュウ (pyuu pyuu) :

Another giongo is pyuu pyuu (ピュウピュウ), which imitates the sound of air whooshing or blowing around. The sentence used in the video is 空気が入ってピュウピュウ which is translated as ‘The air is inside, pyuu pyuu’.

Pyuu pyuu can also be used in these ways :

風がピュウピュウ吹いているよ – The wind is really blowing (howling).

今日は朝から冷たい北風がﾋﾟｭｳﾋﾟｭｳ吹いてます – The cold northern wind has been blowing ever since this morning.

As you can see, there is no good way to translate pyuu pyuu which captures the essence of the original Japanese. Whistling, howling and blowing might be the nearest English equivalents but they still lack the elegance of the Japanese pyuu.

That’s all for this installment. Please note that I’m still learning Japanese and it’s likely that I’ve made translation errors or used the wrong kanji. The example sentences were found via a Google search but the translations are my own. And enjoy the video, if you haven’t already seen it!