Photo/Illutration Bell crickets (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The weather in Tokyo was warm enough to wear short-sleeved shirts until a couple of days ago, but autumn has quickly taken on its colors.

I found flowering dogwoods bearing red fruit in my neighborhood on Oct. 8.

In the grass, crickets and other autumn insects were chirping lively as if in a concert. They sang “koro koro, “rin rin” and “gee gee.”

I stopped for a while and listened “sootto” (quietly) to their songs, wondering how many sounds were involved.

A haiku composed by Takashi Matsumoto (1906-1956) goes: “Bell crickets have taken a rest from singing in a chorus of insects.”

Onomatopoeic words, such as those expressing the sounds of insects, as well as mimetic words like “soo(tto),” appear to have been used from long ago.

Konjaku Monogatari Shu (Tales of Times Now Past), a collection of stories compiled during the Heian Period (794-1185), offers a trove of intriguing examples.

A baby held by a female ghost cries “iga iga.” As a child runs away, the hair sways “taso taso” on the back of its head.

In modern Japanese, these scenes would be described with the words “ogya” (crying) and “yusa yusa” (shaking) instead.

While individual words come into and go out of fashion over time, repeating the same word has been a basic pattern since olden days, writes Nakami Yamaguchi, a linguist specializing in Japanese, in her book “Inu wa ‘Biyo’ to Naite Ita” (Dogs once barked “biyo”).

The combination of a glottal stop considered as a phoneme and “ri,” as in “ukkari” (carelessly), dates back to the Kamakura and Muromachi periods from the 12th to 16th century, while the pattern of a long vowel sound followed by “n,” as in “dokaan” (boom), first appeared during the Edo Period (1603-1868), according to Yamaguchi.

Onomatopoeic and mimetic words can be coined as long as they follow certain patterns, and that is an allure, she notes.

Come to think of it, poets are adept at creating new ones.

Chuya Nakahara (1907-1937) depicted the swinging of a trapeze in a circus tent with “yuaan, yuyoon, yuyayuyon,” an expression he invented.

I intend to listen to the sounds of insects tonight. I wonder how they will sound to me this time.

By breaking free from conventional expressions, we can further enrich the Japanese language. This will add another item to the list of autumn pleasures.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 9

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News