1. The Symbolism of the Onomatopoeia Markers in Japanese
KADOOKA Ken-Ichi
Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan

2. Introduction (1) bare stem 26 hisi (to hug firmly)
altered reduplication 41 gasa-goso (to look for something)
doubled base 45 butu-kusa (voice/manner of grumbling)
reduplication 716 koro-koro (something rolling)
others 806　guiQ (< base gu, jerking action)

3. Items
1634 examples in Kakehi Hisao,Lawrence Schourup, & Ikuhiro Tamori Dictionary of iconic expressions in Japanese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
OM: onomatopoeia marker
/dota-bata/
/suQteN-korori/

4. Moraic and Segmental Markers
Moraic Markers: moraic nasal (N), moraic consonant (Q), vowel prolongation (R), ri, Reduplication
Segmental Markers: Voicing, Palatalization, Spirantization

5. 1. Systematicity of Japanese Onomatopoeia.
(2) base /C1V1C2V2/
(3) base + OM = onomatopoetic lexeme
(4) moraic nasal N
moraic consonant Q: duplication of the following consonant [p t k s h] or a glottal stop
vowel prolongation R ri
Reduplication

6. Segmental OMs (5) Voicing 433 /koro/ > /goro/ (rolling)
Palatalization /kata/ > /katya/ (clitter-clatter)
Spirantization 37 /kutya/ > /kusya/ (messy)

7. 2. Moraic OMs. (6) *koro (the base does not occur alone)
koroQ: something rolls only once; the rolling action does not continue for a long time
koro-koro: the thing rolls more than once
koroN: implies the completion of the rolling
koroRQ: the rolling object is large, suggested by the prolongation of the vowel R
korori: the thing rolls and then stops

8. Descriptions of each lexeme
Bare stems are not lexemes
The stem /koro/ is not a lexeme.
Onomatopoeia Markers are so productive that bare stems are rarely lexemes by themselves.
/koroQ/
/koro-koro/
/koroN/
/koroRQ/
/koro-ri/

9. 3. Segmental OMs (5) Voicing 433 /koro/ > /goro/ (rolling)
Palatalization 56 /kata/ > /katya/ (clitter-clatter)
Spirantization 37 /kutya/ > /kusya/ (messy)

10. 3.1. Voicing unmarked /p t k s/  /b d g z/ marked
/koro/  /goro/: a heavier thing is rolling
Rendaku: sequential voicing
433 pairs of voiceless – voiced
About 400 samples of /h b p/

11. C1 and C2 Voicing C1 is voiced: unmarked
/doteN/  /dodeN/: C2 is voiced
C2 plays a subsidiary role
Double voicing is possible

12. Double Voicing /dyaboN/ < /tyapoN/: both C1 and C2 are voiced
OCP: obligatory contour principle
two or more segments sharing a single feature within a given phonological domain
“the OCP is an artifact of a two-dimensional theory of phonology that does not permit a full exploitation of hierarchical (non-linear) relations “

13. /h p b/ historical change /p/ → /f/ → /h/
Orthographically, /h/ unmarked, /b/ marked, /p/ more marked
/h/ はひふへほ
/b/ ばびぶべぼ: two pots are added
/p/ ぱぴぷぺぽ: a circle is added

14. / h p b/ samples
(7) /hata-hata/: the sound of something like flag fluttering in the wind
/pata-pata/: the wind is stronger than in /hata-hata/
/bata-bata/: the wind is stronger than in /pata-pata/

15. 3.2. Palatalization. consonants /p b t d k g s z h n/ are palatalized
impossible to find a common articulatory feature
[coronal] /r/ and [labial] /m/ are excluded
Palatalization occurs before back vowels /u o a/
/beto-beto/  /betyo-betyo/ (sticky)
'roughness' or 'discontinuity'

16. Palatalization samples
(8) /katya/ < /kata/ clitter-clatter
/nyu/ < /nu/ to appear suddenly
/potya/ < /pota/ dripping sound of water
/tyapo/ < /tapo/ splashing sound of water
/zyori/ < /zori/ roughness of the surface of human skin

17. Double palatalization
OCP violation
articulatory difficulty: if both C1 and C2 are palatalized, it is tongue twisting for a native speaker of Japanese
Yet this is one more piece of evidence to assume that voicing is articulatorily easier than palatalization in Japanese onomatopoeia phonology.

18. 3.3. Spirantization. /t/  /s/ often in palatalized syllables
Plosives are phonologically unmarked in the Japanese consonant inventory
Marked: 37 occurrences in the database
Restricted to the second C of the bases

19. Spirantization examples
(9) /musuQ/ < /mutuQ/ in a bad mood
/gaQsiri/ < /gaQtiri/ the body strongly built
/gasiQ/ < /gatiQ/ the body strongly built
(10) /kusya/ < /kutya/ messy
/gusya/ < /gutya/ cloth or paper crumpled
/bisyo/ < /bityo/ wet, soaked to the skin
/dosya/ < (/dotya/) < /dota/ sound of falling down
/pesyaN-ko/ < /petyaN-ko/ < /petaN-ko/ flat

20. 3.4. Summary
(11) Voicing 433 > Palatalization 56 > Spirantization 37
Voicing: /p t k s h/
Palatalization: /p t k b d g s z h n/
Spirantization: /t/

21. 4. Conclusion.
by noting the various OMs, we can provide insight to large numbers of semantically parallel but otherwise unrelated entries
It also provides regularity to the phonology, resulting in a certain amount of phonosymbolic iconicity
it suggests that the onomatopoeia lexicon of Japanese should be organized on the basis of the root morpheme.

22. References
Kadooka, Ken-ichi The derivation structure in Japanese onomatopoeia. Proceedings of Kansai LinguisticSociety
Kadooka, Ken-Ichi Sound symbolism in English onomatopoeia word forms. Ryukoku Journal of Humanities and Sciences
Kadooka, Ken-Ichi Morphological patterns in Japanese and Chinese onomatopoeia. Ryukoku Journal of Humanities and Sciences 22(1)
Kakehi, Hisao, Lawrence Schourup, & Ikuhiro Tamori Dictionary of iconic expressions in Japanese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Noma, Hideki Onomatope to on-syoutyou (Onomatopoeia and sound symbolism). Gengo 30(8)
Schourup, Lawrence, & Ikuhiro Tamori Palatalization of Japanese r in relation to theories of restricted underspecification. Gengo Kenkyuu 101.
Vance, Timothy An introduction to Japanese phonology. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Waida, Toshiko English and Japanese onomatopoeic structures. Bulletin of Osaka Women’s University,Studies in English 36.