I’m writing a children’s story, during the course of which a number of farm animals will moo, baa, cluck, and…well, there’s a goat in the story. I always thought the classic “sound” (at least in English, I know they vary in other languages) for a goat was “naa”. However, as an adult, I usually see it written as “maa”.
I’d vote with you: “Naa” with an “N.” But this is likely highly regional, and may even be something that’s changed since we were kids (did you hear about Pluto and the Brontosaurus?)
I have a two year old daughter, we have about 100 books about farm animal sounds. I would say it’s about a 60/40 split between “ma-a-a-h” and “na-a-a-h” sounds. They also vary between maa/mah and naa/nah spellings.
I would say it’s the least consistent farm animal sound. The all- time winner, though, for domesticated animals as represented in books for kids, is the dog – we’ve got books with arf, ruff, woof, and bow-wow.