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”.
What do you think?
Goats bleat.
Meh.
What does the fox say?
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?)
“Hiss”, or a little barky “yelp,” as the idiot songwriters could have discovered by ten seconds on YouTube or actually visiting a zoo.
I was going to say “meh” too.
The Goat said–
*Ob-*viously.
Maa.
The horse says, “Doctorate denied.”
“don’t sacrifice me, bro”
Baaaa.
Yes, I know, the sheep say that too - but with a different intonation.
Maa.
Slyyyy.
Maa… According to every other children’s book with animals.
The goat says: “Wait until my brother comes, he’s much bigger and juicier than I am.”
And the cat said fiddle-dee-dee…
“Yo, I’m a goat”
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.
Mah-nah-mah-nah, doot doot doo doo doo,
Mah-nah-mah-nah, doot doot doot doo…