By: Localising Exclamations In Final Fantasy XIII | Kotaku Australia

Localising Exclamations In Final Fantasy XIII | Kotaku Australia — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:03:21 +0000

[...] one hand, they’re to be expected; Japan is known for its plethora of exclamations and onomatopoeia. On the other – when translated literally – they make for a poor [...]

By: Localizing exclamations. « Significant Bits

Localizing exclamations. « Significant Bits — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:58:34 +0000

[...] one hand, they’re to be expected; Japan is known for its plethora of exclamations and onomatopoeiae. On the other — when translated literally — they make for a poor [...]

By: Reecheru

Reecheru — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:49:59 +0000

I noticed that a lot of things are supposed to be repeated like Niko for smiling, is supposed to be niko niko. Not trying to sound rude, but just saying.

By: ronin

ronin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 01:42:51 +0000

1. wan wan – Starting with a simple one. wan wan, pronounced “WHAN WHAN” is the sound a dog makes. Sometimes kids will even refer to a dog as a wan wan.
2. nyan nyan – This is the sound a cat makes. It’s a little tougher for us to pronounce, tho not hard. Say “NEE” then “YAH” then try to say them really fast so they become one syllable, “NYA” and then add the nasal “N” at the end.
3. doki doki – This is a heart beating quickly. say it as “DOE-KEY DOE-KEY”. Usually Japanese people will pound their chest as they say it. It is used quite often when talking about being scared, surprised, or nervous.
4. goro goro – The rumble of your stomach. “GO-ROW GO-ROW” (Tap your tongue behind your teeth for the “R”, like in Spanish, so it sounds more like an “L”, tho not exactly). Whenever someone is hungry, they will use this word.
5. mou mou – The sound of a cow. Sounds like “MOE”. Japanese people get so confused sometimes when you talk about mowing a yard because of this (or maybe this just happens to me when I talk to them).
6. zaa – This is the sound pouring rain makes. Stretch out the “A” a little, pronounced “AH”, so more like “ZAAAAAAH”. You guessed it, whenever people are talking about storms or rain, this word usually comes into the sentence somewhere.
7. gero gero – The sound a frog makes. “GEH-RO GEH-RO”. Nothing like “ribbit”, but most frogs don’t make a ribbit sound anyways. Pretty much every kind of frog makes a different sound. gero does actually sound pretty close to the frogs they have here.
8. guu/kuu – The sound of sleep. “KU” is a gentle, peaceful sleep. Kind of like what we represent with “ZZZZZZZZ” in comics, tho we don’t actually say it like they will here. “GU” on the other hand is a rougher sleep, maybe with a little snoring.
9. shiiin – The sound of silence. “SHEEN” is used whenever one wants to indicate complete silence. Often when I tell American jokes to Japanese people I am greeted with SHIIIN. Can also be used when someone is completely stunned or startled into speechlessness.
10. pera pera – The sound of fluency in a language. “PEH-RA PEH-RA”. Not sure if this is similar to how we got “barbarian” or not (All foreign languages sounded like “bar bar bar…” to the Romans, so they called foreigners “barbarians” as a result). A joke in a popular anime here has a foreigner approaching two women. One speaks English, one doesn’t. When the foreigner talks to them all he says is “pera pera pera pera…”. The woman who speaks English responds “pera pera pera pera…” while the other looks on completely clueless. Well, it’s a little more than that… just watch:

Comments on: Common japanese onomatopoeia word sounds found in manga

By: Localising Exclamations In Final Fantasy XIII | Kotaku Australia

By: Localizing exclamations. « Significant Bits

By: Reecheru

By: ronin