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27 Stella T. Zhivkova | Sound Symbolism of Japanese Onomatopoeia as a Determining Factor... main groups: giseigo ( 擬声語 ), giongo ( 擬音語 ), and gitaigo ( 擬態語 ) (see by Tamori 2003). The first two groups can be defined as “sound-imitating words”. Giseigo are words which imitate human voices and animal cries such as “ wan-wan ” ( bow-wow ) for the barking of a dog, whereas giongo imitate natural sounds; shito-shito, for example, is used for gently falling rain. Gitaigo echo situations or actions in full and are often called “mode- imitating words” (Kindaichi 1978: 8).The importance of onomatopoeia for expressing meaning in Japanese is evident in the great number of such words and expressions found in its vocabulary.For example, according to Noma (Noma (1998:31) Japanese holds the second place in the world (after Korean) in terms of its extensive use of sound-symbolic forms (employing 2,348 words vs. 8, 286 in Korean (Tamamura 1982). It is important to point out that gitaigo are radically different from all other word classes: they do not simply describe actions, emotions, or appearances; a gitaigo is rather an integral image where action, emotion and appearance are combined to create and express an idea through language, they have dramaturgic function and simulate an event, an emotion, a perception through language (Voeltz 2001: 1–8). My argument of onomatopoeia as image-evoking loci starts with Osaka`s description (1999) of gitaigo as “image-inducing” and talks about their potential power (Osaka 1999: 21, 36, 71).to evoke the image of a certain situation or mode of action ( Osaka 1999: 3).They describe “physical actions by way of quoting them iconically” (Hamano 1998: 16). Thus acquiring mode-elucidating characteristics. The reason for the peculiarity of gitaigo is in its phonetic structure, as well as in the intrinsic sound-symbolic qualities of the vowels and consonants, which is consolidated into patterns and loaded with meaning for the native Japanese speaker. In order to grasp the relationship between the phonological units of onomatopoeic words (vowels and consonants) and their semantics,a main issue will be treated, that is — the intuitive awareness and natural aptitude of Japanese native speakers for the sound-symbolism of such words.To those who have studied Japanese language it is clear that for the native Japanese speaker onomatopoeia are an important and indispensable part of the language and the basic phonological units of onomatopoeic words are a kind of sound-symbolic code that speaks volumes. Hamano’s “The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese” makes a concerted effort to “present the totality of systematic phono-semantic associations and conclusively