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Japanese double speak

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a 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