What do animals say in your [non-English] language?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I did a search for this before and found this previous thread. My intent is the same, but I’m hoping to get a larger variety of responses.

In my linguistics class today, we were discussing how lexical items are assigned arbitrarily (we call a table “table” even though there is nothing about its form or its construction that leads us to that). The partial exception to this statement is the existence of onomatopoeias. Words that represent a certain sound. My professor is interested in finding out how people in non-English-speaking cultures transcribe certain onomatopoeias.

For example, how do you replicate the noise a dog makes?
Cat?
Duck?
Rooster?
Chicken?
Pig?
Cow?
Horse?
Bee?
Other animals?
How do you replicate a sneeze?
A scream?
A fart?
The act of swallowing?
Other human noises?

I’m looking for a variety of languages here–Polish, Mandarin, Italian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Afrikaans, Thai… whatever you speak. Let me know how to say it!

2

I might remember a few from my high school German class (our Frau forced us to sing the Deutsche version of “Old MacDonald”):

Rooster: Krikeriki
Cat: Miau
Dog: Wau-wau
Pig: grunz-grunz
Cow: Muu-muu
Donkey: I-A (pronounced eee-ahh)

And here’s a nifty page for specific animals across languages.

3

In German:

Dog? Wau or Wuff
Cat? Miau
Duck? -
Rooster? Kikerikii
Chicken? -
Pig? -
Cow? Muh
Horse? -
Bee? -
Other animals? Donkey I-Ah
How do you replicate a sneeze? Hatschii
A scream? -
A fart? -
The act of swallowing? -
Other human noises? -

For some of those that I didn’t answer there are words but they are not onomatopoeias.

4

This isn’t English…

When I was little, I was certain that the rooster said, “Dot! doo doo doo doo doo.”

5

French:

For example, how do you replicate the noise a dog makes? Wouf wouf
Cat? Miaou
Duck? Coin coin
Rooster? Cocorico!
Chicken? Cot cot cot codac! (hen)
Pig? Groin groin
Cow? Meuh
Horse? Cataclop (hooves)
Bee? Bzzzzzz
How do you replicate a sneeze? Atchoum!
A scream? Aaaaaah!
A fart? Prout!

6

For French Canada (very similar to the french stuff listed above - almost all the same, except for a few word endings here and there!)

Cat? Miaou, sometimes Miou…
Duck? Coin coin coin
Rooster? Cocorico
Chicken? Cot cot cot or pok pok pok
Pig? Groin, or Gnouff
Cow? Meuh
Horse? Heeeeiiiin…
Bee? Bizzzzzz
How do you replicate a sneeze? Atchou or Apitchou
A scream? AAAAAAAAH!
A fart? prout or sprout or pffft!
The act of swallowing? gloup, or “glou” for liquids

:slight_smile: There are some regional variations. Yay for french in that sense… :slight_smile:

7

Well, in this case, it’s how an English speaker transcribes sounds used by Cantonese speakers, sounds which also have a written Chinese form. The following are fairly well attested:

Cat: miu
Dog: woh (pronounced as British English ‘war’ - no rhotic ‘r’ sound)
Cow: mmm
A sneeze: ha-chee (actually, more accurately ha-tsee, but usually rendered as given)
A fart: but (pronounced boo(t), with no explosion on final consonant)

8

Bzzzpeek!

It’s got recordings of people doing animal (and some vehicle) sounds from all kinds of languages.

9

This is awesome! Especially those links. Thanks a lot, everyone who replied!

Those who haven’t, keep 'em coming!

10

In Danish:

Dog: Vov or vuf
Cat: Mjav
Duck: Raprap
Rooster: Kykelikyy
Pig: Grynt
Cow: Muh
Bee: Bzzz
How do you replicate a sneeze: Atju
A fart: Prut or prrrt
The act of swallowing: Gulp
Snoring: Zzzzz

There’s probably more - but this was what I could think of at the moment.

11

Japanese:
Dog: wan-wan
Cat: niaou
Pig: buu-buu
Rooster: Ko-ki-ko-ko

12

Oh, and swallowing is goku: in the Japanese translation of Lord Of The Rings, Gollum {remember, he’s named after the gulping noise he makes} is called Gokuro. God, there are way too many in Japanese to list - half of the language is insanely complex, the other half is baby-talk. Gusho-gusho means a wet slapping sound, and is often applied to sex…

13

Finnish:

Dog: Hau hau (pronounced “how how”) or vuh vuh
Cat: Miau
Duck: Kvaak kvaak
Rooster: Kukkokiekuu (literally “kukko kiekuu”: “the rooster crows”)
Pig: röh röh, or sometimes nöf nöf if you’re talking about piglets
Cow: Ammuu
Bee: Bzz or surrur
How do you replicate a sneeze: Atsih!
A fart: depends… maybe prrrt.
The act of swallowing: klunk
Snoring: Krooh pyyh

14

weirdly funny thread. sort of related, these are the names of the animals in cantonese:

rooster - kok kok gaii
cat - mao

AYAH!

15

In Thai, roosters say ekki-ek-ek! Which is a lot closer to what real roosters sound like than English. It’s also a hoot to get little kids to make this sound. If I remember I’ll get Mrs. Shibb to help me with the rest of these tonight.

16

Hebrew:

Dog? - Hav Hav
Cat? - Meow
Duck? - Ga Ga
Rooster? - Kookoorikoo
Chicken? - (I have no idea.)
Pig?- (Are you kidding? In Hebrew?)
Cow? - Meh.
Horse? - (I’m not sure there is a word for it).
Bee?- Bzzzzz.
Birds (random) - Tzvitz.
How do you replicate a sneeze? - Apchee.
A scream? - Aiiiiii!
A fart? - Flotz.

17

When I was in 9th grade my Spanish One book had a list of animal sounds that are different in Spanish, French, Japanese and a couple of other languages. Of course, I don’t remember any of them now.

Anyone know the Spanish ones?

18

Sometimes my eldest cat, Sebastien, says to me: “Je suis une chat. Miaou.”
My youngest cat, Kero-chan, often says: “Watashi wa koneko-nyo.”

[/digi charat]

19

Wow! This is great!

Middlecase: my roommate’s going to get a big kick out of goshu goshu!

20

I have been told that in spanish, a dog says “Gwah, gwah” though probably not spelled that way.

I also remember from a song about colors (De Colores, and you could probably google the lyrics) that a rooster says “cara cara”, a chicken says “kiri kiri” and a chick says “pio pio.”

Hope that helps.