Why, Japan? Why do you have onomatopoeia for things that make no noise?

glasnost said:
Why, Japan? Why do you have onomatopoeia for things that make no noise?

Ask instead why English is so deficient in this regard!

Cuz Japan always put them in their manga and the such, and well, americans/english people dont have many manga to put them around in the first place is my first guess

lolin86 said:
Cuz Japan always put them in their manga and the such, and well, americans/english people dont have many manga to put them around in the first place is my first guess

Onomatopoeias make the situation more understandable. Japanese onomatopoeias tend to be fairly specific and, in contrast, abstract. They aren't very obvious noises. Americans, however, use onomatopoeias such as "BAM" and "DOOM" which are extremely specific and, in the way I read them, sound like adjectives.