Here is an interesting list of Japanese onomatopoeias and other sound-symbols. Great for the useless trivia part of your brain (you know you have one), with insights such as:
paku paku = opening and closing mouth, eating, gobbling. This is where Pac-man came from! (see also hau, gatsu)
Many pointless speculative arguments could have been quashed in the eighties if I'd known this all along.
Posted by Alan Hogue at August 25, 2004 05:07 PMDon't they also answer the phone by saying "mushi mushi"? - almost as good as Mr. Burns' "ahoy hoy", which was apparently the greeting that Alexander Graham Bell originally suggested for users of telephonic contraptions.
Posted by: Alan Allport at August 25, 2004 07:26 PM