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Pika Pika (mander.xyz)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 26 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Pika is pronounced "pie-kuh" generally. Pikachu comes from pika pika (japanese onomatopoeia for "sparking/sparkling" usually with the connotation of clean) + chuu (sound a mouse makes/squeak).

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  • [–] 10 points 11 months ago (8 children)

    Actually it comes from pika(-tto), the onomatopoeia for a lightning strike.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Actually, name of many Pokemon are multi layered

    So there is no wrong, but both right

    It is the beauty of Pokemon names and even concepts

    Watch some lockstin and gnoggin if interested in this topic 😇

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  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Not according to an interview by the creator of Pikachu, Atsuko Nishida:

    “Since it was an Electric-type Pokémon, I thought ‘pika‘ [the expression of light flashing in Japanese].

    https://web.archive.org/web/20211108083831/https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/creator-profile-the-creators-of-pikachu/

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    That’s… what I said?

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    Its light in general, not lightning

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    “pika” on its own is a sudden flash of light. This onomatopeia is very old (edo era old). What kind of light flashes do you think you’d find 400 years ago? There was pretty much just lightning. Not to be confused with the repeated “pika pika” which like the other commenter said indicates more of a glimmer or shiny and is way more common today.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    I think these are the same root? Pika pika is used to mean clean but it's onomatopoeia for sparkling. That double word onomatopoeia construction in japanese doesn't really have a direct analogue in English I don't think.

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