With many 擬音語 (ぎおんご, onomatopoeia) and 擬態語 (ぎたいご, mimetic words) there is a
double form, where the word is repeated, and a form with っと at the end. For
example:

  * きらきら -> きらっと (sparkling) 
  * ぴかぴか -> ぴかっと (twinkling) 
  * ぺろぺろ -> ぺろっと (slavering?) 
  * ちらちら -> ちらっと (fluttering) 
  * ごろごろ -> ごろっと (rumbling) 
  * どきどき -> どきっと (suddenly?)

Is there one of these forms for every 擬音語/擬態語? I couldn't find some in the
dictionary. How are the two forms used differently? Is this っと just another
grammatical form (like という)? And what about the similar forms ちらり, ちらりと and
ちらと or きらりと and きらり?
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2011-06-24T16:57:38.577
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question
usage onomatopoeia
How are the giongo/gitaigo double form and tto form related (きらきら vs. きらっと)
っと means for a short time. for example きらきら is sparkling all the time but きらっと
means it just sparkled for a moment. And it's same for others too.

What you are mistaken is that we write 擬態語 in Hiragana (平仮名 (I wasn't sure if
I wrote the English part right so I wrote it in Japanese)) and that we write
擬音語 in Katakana (片仮名). And for for 擬音語 we don't usually use っと. ごろごろ for
instance.
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2011-06-25T00:07:32.390
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answer
Good article on the topic: <http://nihonshock.com/2013/04/japanese-
onomatopoeia/>

Briefly summarized:

Basically, most giongo/gitaigo can take four forms with basically the same
meaning

Doubling(にこにこ)

To-ending(にこっと)

Ri-ending(にこり)

Combination of the previous two (にっこり)

Probably the only difference in meaning is described by Hikari in the other
answer: the doubled form can indicate a continuous state while the -to or -ri
is a brief action or a change in state. Note that in manga the final と may be
missing (ニコッ).

Sometimes you may also encounter doubling of otherwise “standard” one/two
syllable words and which usually have kanji forms unlike onomatopoeia, e.g.

色々(いろいろ)

堂々(どうどう)

Some of these can appear with a following と but they can’t be used in “halved”
mode (e.g. いろっと can only be used when quoting someone).

Also there exist a category of adverbs with -ri or -to endings which do not
(AFAIK) appear in doubled form: がっかり、しっかり、はっきり、ちゃんと、きっと and so on (see the
article for more examples).
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