Common Animal Onomatopoeia used by the Japanese

Animal-related Onomatopoeia

We’ve already seen how important onomatopoeia are in Japanese. With more than one thousand オノマトペ, the Japanese language cherishes particularly sounds and actions related to animal:

• 鳴き声: the voice of an animal, from 鳴く to cry)
• 擬音語: the sound (of an action, a movement…)

You would think animal onomatopoeia are similar in different languages. To tell the truth, some of them might be very close, but the contrary is more frequent! You might even doubt whether the sound really comes from the same animal! One good example would be the frog’s voice, “ribbit” in English, becoming ゲロゲロ in Japanese. The Japanese language also has a lot of words describing an animal’s behaviour, for instance, the rabbit’s movement, “boing boing”) becomes ピョンピョン. In this last case, the word refers to the little animal’s jumps here and there.

Cat・Meow

• Cat: にゃーにゃーお  (Meow)

Cat・purr

• Cats (purring): ごろごろ (purr)

Dog・Woof Woof

• Dog: わんわん (Woof, woof)

Cow・moo

• Cow: もー  (Moo)

Horse・neigh

• Horse: ひひーん (Neigh)

Frog・ribbit

• Frog: ゲロゲロ (Ribbit)

Pig・Oink oink

• Pig: ぶーぶー (Oink, oink)

Chicken・Cackle, cluck

• Hen: こけこっこ (Cackle, cluck)

Monkey・eek eek

• Monkey: ききー (Eek eek)

Sheep・baa baa

• Sheep: めーめー (Baa)

Crow・caw caw

• Crow: かーかー (Caw, caw)

Duck・quack

• Duck: がーがー (Quack)

Bee・buzz

• Bee: ぶーーーん (Buzzz)

Snake

• Snake: シュルシュル

Donkey

• Donkey: ヒーホー

Red Panda

• Red Panda: ピィー ピィー

Japanese Raccoon Dog

• Japanese Raccoon Dog: キューンキューン

Other common Onomatopoeia

• Even if not real, monsters also have their onomatopoeia. Like the infamous Godzilla: がおー!

• Woodpecker: かかかかか

Some animals whose voices are ignored in other languages will have a “nakigoe” in Japanese. Like the turtle.

• Turtle: む

Want to find out more about animal names in Japanese? Find out more here!

Reviewing the past examples, you might wonder how come Japanese people came out with the fox sound or the turtle’s voice… In any case, compiling all the existing’s Japanese animal onomatopoeia would be impossible, let alone the sounds made by humans, such as nagging ( かみかみ), crying (うわーん), laughing (あはは), also part of the giongo. It may take you more than a few years to truly master this aspect of the Japanese language. And one of the best and fastest way to learn onomatopoeia would be probably through reading tons of manga! Good luck!

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