KudoZ question not available

English translation: made-up onomatopoeia

00:35 Apr 17, 2022

Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Cinema, Film, TV, Drama

Japanese term or phrase: つぷんかぷんと

Dear ProZ members,

Do you have any ideas about what つぷんかぷんと could mean? I've encountered it in a cartoon, and I'm finding nothing on the Internet, which is quite unusual. Here's the sentence:

嫁っ子は川で洗い物をしているとつぷんかぷんときれいな赤い椀が流れてきた
(The wife was doing laundry at the river, when ??? a nice red bowl came drifting.)

The story is set in Tono. Could is be some local word?

Thank you so much!

Riccardo91
Italy

English translation:made-up onomatopoeia

Explanation:
I think this is a made-up onomatopoeia. The cartoonist is apparently alluding to the well-known story of Momotaro. It is donburako in Momotaro.
https://intojapanwaraku.com/culture/27134/
I think you can just make up your own onomatopoeia to "translate" it.

Selected response from:

Yuki Okada
Canada
Local time: 01:42

Grading comment

That's really interesting! Thank you so much!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +2

made-up onomatopoeia

Yuki Okada

sloshing (made up onomatopoeia)

Jessica Ujiie

Swish-swash bibbity-bo

Muneharu Ota

Answers

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

made-up onomatopoeia

Yuki Okada
Canada
Local time: 01:42
Native speaker of:

Japanese
PRO pts in category: 12

Grading comment

That's really interesting! Thank you so much!

1 day 3 hrs confidence:

sloshing (made up onomatopoeia)

Explanation:
Agreed that it is the cartoonist's own onomatopoeia to signal the sound the red bowl is making on the water.

Jessica Ujiie
Japan
Local time: 17:42
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

1 day 17 hrs confidence:

Swish-swash bibbity-bo

Explanation:
This text seems to be from a story called 'Issun-boushi' ('The Inch-High Samurai) and the word in question is definitely onomatopoeia. It is well-know that Japanese stories contain much onomatopoeia, many of which do not have English equivalent. I have never heard of the onomatopoeia of ‘つぷんかぷん’, but I guess this refers to the state of a bowl drifting down the river. I suggest it could be described as ‘the red bowl was drifting ‘swish-swash bibbity-bob' down the river.

Muneharu Ota
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:42
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Japanese

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