Japanese-English dictionary for food texture

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K12711
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Eating habits
• Research Institution: Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University
• Principal Investigator: ODAKE Sachiko 日本獣医生命科学大学, 応用生命科学部, 准教授 (60233540)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KOBAYASHI Fumiyuki 日本獣医生命科学大学, 応用生命科学部, 講師 (50460001)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 食感 / オノマトペ / 日英語対照 / 音象徴 / 食文化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Japanese language has a lot of onomatopoeias, and so it is with food texture expressions, such as “baribari” and “nechanecha”. Therefore it is sometimes difficult to translate Japanese onomatopoeias to other languages. This study constructed a food texture dictionary of Japanese-English using five rice crackers of different hardness by collecting texture expressions from Japanese speakers and English speakers (Australia and UK). It was also verified there was an accordance in perceived “hardness” among Japanese. In addition, differences in onomatopoeias between actual and imaginary eating, and, expressions obtained by actual eating and printed expressions were revealed.

Free Research Field

食品科学