I've been wondering about the patterns of Japanese onomatopoeia and their etymologies. Perhaps you could help me figure it out or link me to a useful bibliography that might.
The first of these onomatopoeia follow the following pattern: _っ_り, like:
にっこり
さっぱり
すっかり
びっくり
The second example of Japanese onomatopoeia repeats the preceding component, often adding a dakuten (゛) in the latter part, i.e.:
わくわく
ぼろぼろ
しらじら
The third type of onomatopoeia seems to take the sound that things make and adds っと to it:
ぎゅっと
ざっと
どんと
Another question would be, why do some of these onomatopoeia take the に particle, while some use the と particle?