Abstract:
Japanese has a large inventory of sound-symbolic or mimetic words, known in
linguistics as idiophones. Sound symbolic words are found in written as well as spoken
Japanese. They are popularly known as onomatopoeia. These words are not just imitative of
sounds but cover a much wider range of meanings. Many sound-symbolic words in Japanese
are for things that don't make any noise originally, most clearly demonstrated by しいん
と shiinto, meaning "silently". Various types of laughs can be heard in everyday life; a cheerful
laugh, unpleasant laugh, embarrassing laugh etc. Japanese people have a deep interest in what
they hear and see. In addition, every single onomatopoeia related to laugh contains special
meaning. Japanese language learning students should have a keen interest in how Japanese
onomatopoeia related to laugh was made, how the structure of these words were made and how
Japanese people apply these word in everyday life. The purpose of this research is to identify
the characteristics of phonological and morphological of Japanese Onomatopoeia “laugh”.
This paper shows how the Japanese onomatopoeia of laugh only begin with A, KA, HA, and
NA sound. For example ahaha “Haha”, kerakera “sound of shrill laughter”, herahera “foolish
laugh”, nikoniko “friendly grin”. A, KA, and HA sounds are describing the voice of laugh, for
exampleくすくす笑いkusukusu warai, meaning “Giggle” and only NA sound is describing
the facial expression of laugh. For exampleにやにや顔 niyaniya gao, meaning “Grinning
face”. This research reveals that there are 5 forms of onomatopoeia which represent the
Sustainability, Voice pitch, the Gender, the Duration and the Emphasis Of laugh. It’s difficult
to understand the description of the Japanese Onomatopoeia dictionaries as there are many
indescribable onomatopoeias related to Japanese laugh. Therefore it is not that easy to use these
Japanese Onomatopoeias correctly on daily conversation for Japanese-language learners. The
findings may be useful for Japanese language learning students who are interested in Japanese
Linguistics
