Japanese double speak
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
It has recently come to my attention that there are considerably more double-words in Japanese than I'd previously known. Here are some that I now know:
tsuru-tsuru (the feeling that a mineral bath instills)
kari-kari (crisp)
koro-koro (something rolling)
gari-gari (crunching or scratching sound)
gero-gero (sound of a frog)
goro-goro (sound a cat makes)
geri-geri (I think this one is diarrhea)
giri-giri (barely; a close thing, as when catching a train)
puchi-puchi (bubble wrap)
pichi-pichi (young, vivacious in appearance)
ma-ma (same as the English word so-so)
moshi-moshi (greeting on the phone)
chau-chau ("it's not like that" / not authentic)
ten-ten ("dot dot", used when explaining how someone should write a katakana/hiragana character. e.g. the difference between か and が)
Honourable mention goes to:
toki-doki (sometimes)
The ones above are just ones I've heard/used. It turns out that there are a LOT more