In order to practice my katakana, I decided to look up some Japanese fast food websites. Naturally all of the menus were chockablock with katakana words! If you need some practice, I strongly recommend checking some out, and I'll post some Japanese fast food websites at the bottom of this post.
My reason for this post is to do with Japanese sound symbolism / onomatopoeia words. Several of the menu items had a sound word in either its title or description, and I suddenly realised I simply must study some before I (if I... fingers crossed) go to Japan this year.
Thinking about it, I only know sound words related to food - and even then, they don't seem to appear in the dictionary or on any of the lists I have found.
- コロコロ (which one of my friends taught me when I ordered takoyaki for the first time in my life, and WHAT a day that was. A day that changed my life and my after-uni / after-cityday snack for the next 8 years!)
- しゃぶしゃぶ (the sound of the meat being swished around and cooked in the hot pot).
So, as I said a second ago I have found a list of words and I have also found a whole side of Japanese linguistics that I hadn't really come across before. (Thank you wikipedia). I have just discovered the following:
Giseigo 擬声語 / Giongo 擬音語 - words mimicking sounds made by living things (giseigo), and words mimicking sounds made by non-living things (giongo).
Gitaigo 擬態語 - words mimicking non-auditory senses.
Gijougo 議場後 - words describing physical or psychological states.
On the fast food sites, I came across フワフワ for to express 'light / fluffy'. I also found さくさ, meaning 'crispy / crunchy'. After looking them up, I realised the value of knowing these words, whereas before I had disregarded them somewhat.
If anyone has any advice on a good way of studying sound words, please let me know! XD
Ok, here's a list of fast food sites for those wanting to practice their katakana.
1) ロッテリア (Lotteria)
2) ビアードパパ (Beard Papa)
3) ここフランス (CocoFrans)
4) モスバーガー (MosBurger)
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