Onomatopeias

CLASSIFICATION

There are thousands of onomatopoeia in Japanese. Here are 5 categories they can be broken up into:

• Giseigo 擬声語 Animal and human sounds.
• Giongo 擬音語 Actual sounds made by inanimate objects and nature.
• Gitaigo 擬態語 Describe conditions and states.
• Giyougo 擬容語 Describe movements and motions.
• Gijougo 擬情語 Describe feelings.

If you know your kanji, the differences between them should be pretty easy to recognize if you do see them in the wild.

声せい Voice 
音おん Sound/Noise 
態たい Condition/Appearance 
容よう Form/Looks 
情じょう Feelings/Emotions

Giseigo and giongo are just like onomatopoeia we have in English. The cow goes moo. The machine is whirring. They represent real sounds you can hear.

The last three describe what's called mimetic words, or idiophones. They describe or represent something that has no sound. The way you feel, the way you walk, and even your skin has an onomatopoeia to describe it. These mimetic words don't really exist in English.