Storm Eunice has put London and many other cities in the UK on high weather alert today. Advised to stay at home to avoid all nonessential travel, London is under house arrest again, this time due to gale force winds and not the virus. The sunny sky that disguises the oncoming storm connects us here to the mood and fragile order that must have been present in 1948 East Pakistan when Urdu was designated the sole national language in a region with a majority of Bengali speakers.
Mounting tension and protests led to four dead students at the University of Dhaka. It would take four more years for Bengali to become recognized as an official language, and another 15 years before Bangladesh would become a country of its own with its mother tongue, Bengali, officially instated as its national language. The UN’s #InternationalMotherLanguageDay honors that day on the 21st of February every year, and uses this day to advocate mother-language diversity and celebrate mother tongues all over the world.
Listening to the storm build up on this weather-alert day in London and hearing the house creak against the gale force winds, the words that spring to mind are visceral ones from my childhood in my mother tongue, Japanese. As I reflect on the storm, and I can feel the cutting wind blow byuubyuu, making the house grate mishimishi against its joists, arousing a feeling that could make a person shake gatagata with fear. One of my favorite things about my mother tongue is its rich dictionary of onomatopoeia. An onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates the sound it describes, like hiccup, quack or bowwow. Japanese has a huge array of these emotive sound-imitation-words like byuubyuu, mishimishi and gatagata.
I love the folkloric, auditive side of Japanese, but the written language borrowed and localized from Chinese gives us many ways to experience multiple shades of a single natural element, like rain. If you’re homebound and waiting for some lighter spring rain, here’s a delicious array of 50 words for rain curated by John Spacey:
Thanks for letting me nerd out today and take a visit home to my mother tongue. Happy #InternationalMotherLanguageDay!
Rain
雨 あめ ame rain
白雨 はくう hakuu rain shower
急雨 きゅう kyuu rain shower
俄雨 にわかあめ niwakaame rain shower
降雨 こう kou rainfall
Rain by Intensity
弱雨 じゃくう jakuu weak rain
小雨 こさめ kosame light rain
小降り こぶり koburi light rain
微雨 びう biu light rain
小糠雨 こぬかあめ konukaame fine rain
煙雨 えんう enu misty rain
細雨 さいう saiu drizzle
多雨 たう tau heavy rain
大雨 おおあめ ooame heavy rain
強雨 きょうう kyouu severe rain
横降り よこぶり yokoburi driving rain
吹き降り ふきぶり fukiburi driving rain
篠突く雨 しのつくあめ shinotsukuame intense rain
集中豪雨 しゅうちゅうごうう shuuchuugouu severe localized downpour
Rain Combos
風雨 ふう fuu wind and rain
雨氷 うひょう uhyou freezing rain
雨後雪 あめのちゆき amenochiyuki rain then snow
雪交じり ゆきまじり yukimajiri snow and rain
雨混じりの雪 あめまじりのゆき amemajirinoyuki snow and rain
晴後雨 はれのちあめ harenochiame clear then rain
雨露 うろ uro rain and dew
Cold Rain
涼雨 りょうう ryouu cool rain
冷雨 れいう reiu chilly rain
寒雨 かんう kanu cold winter rain
氷雨 ひさめ hisame very cold rain or hail
Types of Rain
夜雨 やう yau night rain
梅雨前線 ばいうぜんせん baiuzensen seasonal rain
春霖 しゅんりん shun rin spring rain
春雨 しゅんう shun u gentle spring rain
緑雨 りょくう ryokuu early-summer rain
五月雨 さみだれ samidare early-summer rain
秋雨 あきさめ akisame autumn rain
秋霖 しゅうりん shuu rin autumn rain
凍雨 とうう touu winter rain
十雨 じゅうう juuu refreshing rain once in ten days
恵雨 けいう keiu welcome rain
人工雨 じんこうう jinkouu artificial rain
放射能雨 ほうしゃのうう houshanouu radioactive rain
天泣 てんきゅう tenkyuu rain from a cloudless sky
Time and Rain
雨模様 あまもよう amamoyou signs of rain
雨催い あまもよい amamoyoi threat of rain
雨上り あまあがり amaagari after the rain
雨後 うご ugo after rain
雨間 あまあい amaai break in the rain
晴一時小雨 はれいちじこさめ hareichijikosame brief light rain
霖 ながめ nagame long rain
霖雨 りんう rinu long rain
長雨 ながめ nagame long rain
陰霖 いんりん inrin long rain
夕立 ゆうだち yuudachi sudden evening rain
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