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
Slipping out of a room, 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、二人は音を立てずに素早く廊下の隅で何かをこそこそしている。Looking guilty, the two of them are up to something in the corner of the corridor, quickly and without a sound.
- 後ろめたそうに、彼は音を立てずに素早く裏口から出入りして、何日もこそこそしている。Looking guilty, he slips in and out through the back door without a sound and quickly, and has been sneaking about like this for days.
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
- 押し入れの奥で粗い包み紙をかき分け、誰も気に留めない音を立てながら時間をかけてごそごそと探した。He rummaged deep in the closet, pushing coarse wrapping paper aside, taking his time, making the kind of sound nobody notices.
- 引き出しの奥で粗い封筒をかき分け、誰も気に留めない音を立てたまま時間をかけてごそごそしている。He is rummaging deep in the drawer, pushing coarse envelopes aside, unhurried, making the kind of noise nobody notices.
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.
- 小さくて軽いビー玉が坂をころころと転がって落ちていく。A small, 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 mountain road.
- 大きくて重い丸太が荷台の上でごろごろと転がって音を立てる。A big, heavy log rolls and rumbles on the truck bed.
さわさわ · to rustle softly
Leaves in the wind, rice at night.
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 not the rustle of leaves but dry smoothness — hair, sand and water sliding past without catching. 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
- 雨上がりで濡れた木の葉が夜風に触れ、とがったところのない音を夜通し立てて、一歩離れると聞こえないほど静かにさわさわと鳴る。Leaves still wet from the rain, brushed by the night wind, rustle all night with a sound that has no sharp edges, so quietly that a step away you hear nothing.
- 夜露に濡れた稲穂が夜の田んぼで、角の立たないやわらかな音を絶やさず、遠くには届かないほど静かにさわさわと揺れている。Ears of rice damp with night dew sway on and on in the field, softly and so quietly that the sound goes no further.
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
- 開演前の会場で、大勢の人が大きな声を出し、落ち着かない様子でざわざわとしている。Before curtain-up a large crowd talks loudly and cannot settle.
- 事故の知らせで大勢の人が大きな声を上げ、落ち着かないまま会場がざわざわしている。At the news of the accident the crowd raised its voice and the hall grew restless.
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
- かき氷をひと口ふくむと、水気の多い氷の粒が舌の上でしゃりしゃりと音を立てた。A mouthful of shaved ice, and the juicy grains of ice crunched on the tongue.
- 水気を含んだ粒の残る氷菓子は、削った氷のような歯触りでしゃりしゃりだ。The juicy ice dessert, grains still in it, crunches like shaved ice.
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
- 乾いた細かい砂が奥歯に残り、噛むたびに粒が当たってじゃりじゃりと鳴った。Dry, fine sand was left between the back teeth and grated as grit with every bite.
- 靴の底に入った乾いた細かい砂が、粒のまま足の裏で擦れてじゃりじゃりと鳴る。Dry, fine sand under the sole does not give; the grains grind against the foot.
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
- 返事を待ちながら、指先で軽く素早く小さく戸をとんとんと叩いた。Waiting for an answer, he tapped the door with a fingertip — light, quick and small.
- 中が空の桶の底を、指先で軽く素早くとんとんと叩く。You tap the bottom of the hollow tub with your fingertips, lightly and quickly.
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
- 怒っているのではなく、ただ気づいてほしくて、重い拳で鈍くて大きな音を立てて戸をどんどんと叩き続けた。Not out of anger — he only wanted to be noticed: a heavy fist kept striking the door, dull and loud, again and again.
- 祭りの前に、重いばちで大太鼓を打つたびに、近所の誰も驚かない鈍くて大きな音がどんどんと響いた。Before the festival, with every blow of the heavy beater the big drum answered dull and loud — a sound none of the neighbours starts at.
Where this comes from
Everything above comes from the free part of the Onomatope app and has passed its content review.
- Onomatope: Japanese MimeticsManga and anime vocabulary
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See also
- Voicing – casual Japanese – voicing in casual speech – the same 濁点, in contractions rather than in mimetics