Voicing pairs: き–し – Japanese mimetics
さらさら and ざらざら, きらきら and ぎらぎら – five pairs from き to し where 濁点 changes the state of things, not the sound.
きらきら · to sparkle
Stars, dew in the morning sun.
Voiceless き breaks the light into small points and leaves it pleasant to the eye — ぎらぎら is that same brightness pushed until you look away. ぴかぴか does not break the light into points: it is a polished surface giving the light back evenly (shined shoes), or a light that comes on and goes off as a whole (稲光がぴかぴか光る); きらきら is many points glittering at once.
Examples
- 夜空で小さな星がきらきらと輝いている。Small stars twinkle in the night sky.
- 小さな水滴が朝日を受けてきらきらしている。Tiny droplets glitter in the morning sun.
ぎらぎら · to glare
Midsummer sun, a baking road.
Voiced ぎ does not make the light bigger — it pushes it past the limit; you look away. きらきら stays with the small points that are pleasant to look at, and ぴかぴか describes a clean surface giving the light back evenly (polished shoes); neither of them glares.
Examples
- 夏の路面が一日じゅうぎらぎらと照り返して暑い。All day the summer road throws back a harsh glare.
- 真昼の太陽が、ぎらぎらと目を射る。The noon sun glares painfully into the eyes.
くしゃくしゃ · to be crumpled up in a fist
A screwed-up sheet, a receipt balled up in a fist.
Voiceless く measures the force of a hand: a sheet squeezed in your fist takes しわ and is still a sheet. Creases that came on their own are しわしわ — an unironed shirt is しわしわ although nobody crushed it — while くしゃくしゃ reports something pressed together: most often a sheet balled up in a hand, but by the same road a face screwed up in laughter (くしゃくしゃの笑顔) and a mind in a tangle. There is no verdict in it — the laughing face is warm, and a crumpled receipt bothers nobody. What divides it from ぐしゃぐしゃ is force and what survives of the shape: a crumpled sheet is still a sheet (形は崩れずに) and can be smoothed out again, while 強く押しつぶされて形が崩れる — that is, つぶれる — belongs to ぐしゃぐしゃ. Note: くしゃくしゃする on its own is said of a mood (気分がくしゃくしゃする); a face goes through にする and の (顔をくしゃくしゃにして笑う, くしゃくしゃの笑顔), while of a sheet of paper you say くしゃくしゃだ and くしゃくしゃになる, and before a noun くしゃくしゃの (くしゃくしゃの紙の塊だ).
Examples
- 伸ばしてみたが、メモはまだくしゃくしゃだ。I tried to flatten the note; it's still crumpled.
- ポケットの中で手紙がくしゃくしゃになっていた。The letter in my pocket was all crumpled.
ぐしゃぐしゃ · to be squashed to a pulp
A cardboard box under a boot.
Voiced ぐ does not change the action, only its force: くしゃくしゃ leaves creases, ぐしゃぐしゃ presses hard enough for the shape to give way (強く押しつぶされて形が崩れる). That is why a boot, a wheel and a weight belong here, and not fingers alone. It adds no size — 小さな紙をぐしゃぐしゃに丸める is perfectly ordinary. Nor does the 濁点 itself bring water: ぐしゃぐしゃ is wet as readily as dry (雨で道がぐしゃぐしゃになる, ぐしゃぐしゃに潰れた車). Being soaked through is ぐっしょり — wet to the last layer, but with the shape intact; ぐしゃぐしゃ always rules on a shape that has given way. Note: ぐしゃぐしゃする is a different thing — a squelch inside a wet shoe (靴の中がぐしゃぐしゃする) or a head in a muddle; of a crushed box you say ぐしゃぐしゃだ or ぐしゃぐしゃになる.
Examples
- 車にひかれた箱は、形も分からずぐしゃぐしゃだ。The box a car ran over is a shapeless mess.
- 重い箱の下のケーキは、形のないぐしゃぐしゃの塊だ。The cake under the heavy box is a shapeless mush.
くるくる · to spin nimbly
A spinning top, a pinwheel, a reel.
Voiceless く makes the turn small: the circle fits in your hand, where ぐるぐる traces a circuit you have to walk round. A top spins fast because it is small, not because it lacks 濁点 — voicing changes no tempo in this pair.
Examples
- 小さな独楽が机の上で速くくるくると回る。A small top spins fast on the desk.
- 小さな糸巻きが速くくるくると回っている。A small spool is spinning quickly.
ぐるぐる · to go round and round
A Ferris wheel, a tenth lap of the field.
Voiced ぐ widens the circle: the くるくる turn that fitted in your hand becomes a circuit. It does not slow it — 目がぐるぐる回る is fast. くらくら turns nothing: it is how someone feels when the room spins on them, not a movement you can watch. うろうろ traces no circle either — it is walking back and forth, with no plan and no centre.
Examples
- 大きな観覧車が休まずぐるぐると回っている。The big Ferris wheel turns without a pause.
- 大きな水車が休みなくぐるぐると回り続ける。A big waterwheel keeps turning without a break.
さらさら · to be dry and smooth — not sticky, free-flowing
Dry hair, loose sand, skin after a bath that no longer feels sticky (湯上がりの肌がさらさら); also the murmur of a stream.
Voiceless さ leaves the surface smooth: the hand runs over it without catching. What separates it from ざらざら is what the hand feels, not how strongly — there the hand catches. すべすべ is smooth too, but it is about skin the hand glides over and rules nothing about dryness, whereas to the touch さらさら is always dry and never sticky — loose sand, hair running through the fingers, skin after a bath that no longer clings (湯上がりの肌がさらさら) — while smoothness itself, as with a baby's skin, is すべすべ; of a stream (小川がさらさら流れる) the word no longer speaks of touch but of the light, clear murmur of water. さわさわ is not touch at all, but the faint rustle of leaves.
Examples
- 乾いた髪が指の間をさらさらとすり抜ける。Dry hair slips through the fingers.
- 乾いた砂が指の間からさらさらとこぼれる。Dry sand trickles through the fingers.
ざらざら · to be rough
A surface you do not want to run your hand over.
Voiced ざ turns smooth into rough: sandpaper instead of freshly washed hair, so さらさら and ざらざら sit at the two ends of one axis. That is the usual direction — but 濁点 is a strong tendency, not a law, and some pairs shift a completely different axis. The remaining neighbours differ not in degree but in what they are about: でこぼこ is unevenness big enough to see with the eye, shaping the thing itself (a stone wall, a yard), while ざらざら is a grain you feel with a fingertip on a surface that is otherwise flat; ごわごわ rules on the stiffness of a towel that will not bend, not on its grain; かさかさ on thin, dried-out skin; がさがさ mostly on the loud rustle of coarse paper; and じゃりじゃり on loose grit that shifts under a tooth or in a shoe, not on a surface.
Examples
- 紙やすりは粗くて、触るとざらざらする。Sandpaper feels rough to the touch.
- 粗いセメントの床は素足で踏むとざらざらだ。Rough concrete feels coarse under bare feet.
しとしと · to drizzle quietly
Fine rain that falls on and on.
しとしと says HOW it rains: slowly, finely, on and on — and that “on and on” is what pushes ぽつぽつ aside, since ぽつぽつ names the first separate drops on the pavement, still countable and still no promise of rain. ザーザー stands at the other end: a downpour you can hear through a closed window, while しとしと is not heard at all. It makes no pair with じとじと — that describes the state of the air and cannot rain (じとじと降る is not Japanese).
Examples
- 細かい雨がやむ気配もなくしとしとと降る。Fine rain falls with no sign of stopping.
- 春の小雨が夜までしとしとと降り続く。The spring drizzle keeps falling until night.
じとじと · to be damp and clammy
The air in the rainy season, a sweat-soaked shirt on your back.
じとじと describes heavy, muggy damp that hangs in the air and settles on things — and that is all it does. Rain falling is しとしと: a fine, quiet drizzle that goes on and on (しとしとと雨が降る). The test is one sentence long: しとしとと降る is ordinary Japanese, while じとじと降る is not — じとじと does not rain, it stays, on your skin, on the walls and in the washing. So it is not an intensified しとしと but a second word built on the same kana skeleton.
Examples
- 梅雨のあいだじゅう、部屋がじとじとだ。All through the rainy season the room is clammy.
- 汗で重いシャツがいつまでも乾かずじとじとする。My sweat-heavy shirt won't dry and stays damp.
Where this comes from
Everything above comes from the free part of the Onomatope app and has passed its content review.
App Store →Free app with an in-app purchase
- OnomatopeManga and anime vocabulary
See also
- Voicing – casual Japanese – voicing in casual speech – the same 濁点, in contractions rather than in mimetics