Sound pairs: こ–と – Japanese mimetics
ころころ and ごろごろ, とんとん and どんどん – pairs from こ to と where you hear what knocks, rolls or rustles.
こそこそ · to do something furtively, shiftily
Sneaking, with a guilty look: whispered scheming, carrying something out the back door.
こそこそ names a purpose: not to be noticed — and it passes judgement while doing so, because it looks like something dishonest. こっそり carries no such verdict: こっそり贈り物を用意する is a kind surprise, while こそこそ贈り物を用意する sounds shifty. ひそひそ is only about the voice, lowered near other people, whereas こそこそ covers the whole behaviour, including when nobody is speaking at all. ごそごそ names a sound, that of things being shifted about — 濁点 intensifies nothing here; these are simply two words sharing a skeleton.
Examples
- 後ろめたそうに何かこそこそしている。Looking guilty, he's doing something on the sly.
- 夫は後ろめたげに足音を忍ばせこそこそしている。Looking guilty, my husband creeps about on tiptoe.
ごそごそ · to rummage
Hunting for keys in a bag, digging through a box.
ごそごそ is rummaging: hands shift things and those things rustle. It bothers nobody — and that is what separates it from がさがさ, which grates on the ear. こそこそ, by contrast, is no sound at all but a purpose: doing something so that nobody notices. You may rummage ごそごそ in plain sight.
Examples
- 押し入れで何かが小さくゆっくりごそごそと動く。Something in the closet shuffles, slow and soft.
- 粗い麻袋の中をそっとごそごそしている。Someone rummages quietly in a coarse hemp sack.
ころころ · to roll lightly
Something small and light rolls along.
Voiceless こ keeps the rolling thing hand-sized; ころころ rolls a sweet or a pebble, and it takes ごろごろ with 濁点 to swap it for a boulder you can hear coming.
Examples
- 小さくて軽い飴玉が机の上をころころ転がった。Small, light candies rolled across the table.
- 軽いビー玉が坂をころころと転がっていく。A light marble rolls down the slope.
ごろごろ · to roll heavily
Something big and heavy rolls with a rumble.
Voiced ご makes the same thing bigger, heavier and less pleasant: ころころ rolls what fits in your hand, ごろごろ a boulder you can hear. ゴゴゴ rolls nothing at all — it is a katakana mark from a comic panel, an ominous rumble warning that something is coming, not a word anybody says. Note: ごろごろする means “to laze about” (休日は家でごろごろしている) and that is its commonest use today — rolling is ごろごろと転がる.
Examples
- 大きくて重い岩が山道をごろごろ転がってきた。A big, heavy boulder came rolling down the trail.
- 重い丸太が荷台の上でごろごろと転がる。A heavy log rolls about on the truck bed.
さわさわ · to rustle softly
Leaves and ears of rice swaying in a gentle breeze.
Voiceless さ keeps the sound edgeless and so quiet it does not carry a step further — it is background, not an event; ざわざわ lifts that same murmur far enough that it stops being background and starts getting in the way. さらさら is said of leaves too (笹の葉さらさら), and the line between them does not run along water: 小川がさらさら流れる is an ordinary sentence. It runs along the sound and what is moving: さらさら is the dry, light rustle of thin things slipping over one another (bamboo leaves, hair, sand, a stream), while さわさわ is the soft murmur of many living green leaves or ears of grain that a gentle wind sways where they stand (風で木の葉がさわさわと鳴る). The word lives only with a verb (さわさわと鳴る, さわさわと揺れる); さわさわする is not used.
Examples
- 青い若葉が、風にさわさわと揺れる。Fresh green leaves rustle in the wind.
- 穏やかな風に、青い稲穂がさわさわと揺れる。Green ears of rice rustle in the mild breeze.
ざわざわ · to buzz with restless noise
A hall before curtain-up, a crowd after bad news.
Voiced ざ coarsens the sound and raises the volume: さわさわ does not carry a step further, ざわざわ fills a whole hall. It does not swap leaves for people — 木々がざわざわ揺れる is an ordinary sentence. そわそわ is no sound at all: it is one person's restlessness, unable to sit still because something is about to happen, whereas ざわざわ is heard.
Examples
- 大勢の客の低い話し声が、ざわざわと広がる。A crowd's low murmur spreads through the room.
- 開演前、大勢の話し声で会場がざわざわしている。Before curtain-up the hall buzzes with voices.
しゃりしゃり · to crunch juicily, with a grain of ice
Shaved ice, sorbet, frozen fruit.
Voiceless し gives a fine, wet grain — which is to say, tasty. じゃりじゃり is those same grains dried out: sand that grinds between the teeth and nobody eats. しゃきしゃき has no grain at all — it is the firmness of fibre in fresh cabbage or lettuce — whereas しゃりしゃり always carries a crystal of ice or the flesh of frozen fruit.
Examples
- 果汁たっぷりのシャーベットをしゃりしゃりと食べる。I crunch through a juicy fruit sorbet.
- 凍らせたぶどうは、甘くてしゃりしゃりだ。Frozen grapes are sweet and icy-crunchy.
じゃりじゃり · to grate with grit
Sand between the teeth, gravel in a shoe.
Voiced じ dries those same grains out: the wet, tasty flesh of しゃりしゃり turns into dry sand that grinds between the teeth. ざらざら is not loose grit but the grain of a surface: it is said of a wall or of sandpaper the hand runs over, while じゃりじゃり is said of grains that move by themselves — in a shoe or between the teeth.
Examples
- 乾いた砂粒が奥歯でじゃりじゃりと鳴った。Dry grains of sand grated between my back teeth.
- 靴に入った細かい砂がじゃりじゃりと擦れる。Fine sand in the shoe grinds and chafes.
とんとん · to tap lightly
A finger on a door, a knife on a board.
Voiceless と keeps the hand light and the sound quiet: the same knocking, but with a fingertip — audible only close up, where どんどん is a fist heard along the whole floor.
Examples
- 指先で軽く戸をとんとんとノックした。He knocked lightly on the door with a fingertip.
- 空の桶を指先で軽くとんとんと叩く。You tap the empty tub lightly with a fingertip.
どんどん · to bang loudly; more and more
A fist on a door, a drum — and prices that climb by the day.
Voiced ど does not change the motion — it changes the force: a light tap becomes a pounding. The second sense of どんどん is the commoner one today: the adverb “more and more” (気温がどんどん上がる, 値段がどんどん上がる), where there is no hand and no person at all — a temperature or a price can climb that way. Pounding is what this card teaches. とんとん has senses of its own — 収支がとんとん (“to break even”) and とんとん拍子 (“smoothly, one after another”) — but “more and more” is not among them.
Examples
- 返事がないので、拳で戸をどんどんと叩き続けた。No answer, so I kept pounding the door.
- 毎朝の合図に大太鼓がどんどんと鳴る。Every morning the big drum booms as a signal.
Where this comes from
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- OnomatopeManga and anime vocabulary
See also
- Voicing – casual Japanese – voicing in casual speech – the same 濁点, in contractions rather than in mimetics