Ono-mato-poeia!

by Meg on May 23, 2006

Baroo?! Ehn! Yeing, yeing, yeing Cronche! Snorgle.

A fabu list of animal sounds from "many lands" was corralled by Rebecca I. How does a Danish person imitate a baby chicken? "Pip pip!" How do the Japanese imitate a mouse squeaking? "chu chu" of course! Duh.

Click to find see he entire Animal noise page!

{ 57 comments }

1 Theo 05.23.06 at 9:24 pm

Yay!
(Huh?)

2 Liana 05.23.06 at 9:25 pm

aww that mustve taken forever to make!

3 angela 05.23.06 at 9:32 pm

Now I can make animal sounds from around the world, too funny!

4 Carlisa 05.23.06 at 10:04 pm

Wow, check it out. Babel Fish for animals.

5 Courtney 05.23.06 at 10:07 pm

The french think a duck says “coin coin” and a pig says “groin groin”. That’s awesome. :)

6 captainpotato 05.23.06 at 10:32 pm

You’re all impressed about the page content… I’m in shock about the person’s webpage that it’s on – I know him!

Is there anything that he /doesn’t/ put on his work webpage (he’s an academic in electrical engineering)?

Wow.

However, he hasn’t included any tapir noises :)

7 plunkatone 05.23.06 at 10:54 pm

But HOW do you pronounce “nyerhe”!?

8 A thinker 05.23.06 at 11:17 pm

Tapir noises!!

That’s what we need.

captainpotato, we dispatch you to investigate.

9 E. Collison 05.23.06 at 11:39 pm

We need animal noises in Portuguese, too!

Brazilian bee noise: “zum-zum.”

10 jaypo 05.23.06 at 11:58 pm

The blanks tell as much about the language and its people as the sounds. English had blanks only for:

moose noises (the Swedes were the only ones who had a moose noise)
go away dog (we lof da puppers)
go away bird
come here chicken

But we do have entries for go away cat (though I would *never*…) AND–>>English has pet names in EVERY single animal category.

How cool is that, huh?! We LOFS our nanimals in very vocal ways.

11 alice 05.24.06 at 12:15 am

Yay – now I can talk to animals of other countries ;)

12 alice 05.24.06 at 12:18 am

Is SOMEBODY yay-ing about being first? tsktsk or about the webpage?

13 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 12:19 am

jaypos, somehow it seems to me that the English words/terms are filled in mainly because the person who created that chart is a native speaker of English… seriously.

If they were French or Albanian, the thing would look completely different. (Especially given the French habit of taking pets *everywhere.*)

14 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 12:20 am

Yikes – typo.

Make that “jaypo.”

15 jaypo 05.24.06 at 1:25 am

EC, the webmeister acknowledges a bevy of international native speakers at the top, so I assumed he had plenty of dependable primary sources. But you never know… Maybe they just weren’t as enthusiastic about filling the chart in as he was. Your point is well taken.

16 Aubrey 05.24.06 at 1:28 am

Did the caption here remind anyone else of Todd Rundgren?

Just sayin’.

17 jaypo 05.24.06 at 1:30 am

EC, you could rewrite that as “taypo.” But there’s still only one o’ me…

18 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 1:35 am

But I made you plural…

19 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 1:38 am

A Brazilian friend told me that they’ve forgotten the Portuguese words for animal sounds, partly from having lived outside of Brazil for a long time… I bet that’s commoner (among immigrant groups) than we might assume.

20 Sarah 05.24.06 at 1:48 am

Good to see something so worthwhile coming out of my old university. This may be humble Adelaide’s finest contribution to the world… Take a bow!

21 Aubrey 05.24.06 at 2:28 am

I intend to commit all versions of the ‘come here cat’ command to memory.

22 JessJess 05.24.06 at 2:34 am

That is a very dangerous site for a girl like myself who is already known for meowing, mooing, and oinking…

MEOW!

23 Theo 05.24.06 at 2:43 am

Alice — SOMEBODY was suggesting a possible next element of an emerging pattern.
“Baroo?! Ehn! Yeing, yeing, yeing Cronche! Snorgle.” …Yay!
Geesh.

24 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 2:52 am

“I intend to commit all versions of the ‘come here cat’ command to memory.”

Somehow I think cats will be largely indifferent to your newfound powers, Aubrey. ;)

25 alice 05.24.06 at 3:16 am

Theo – darn, I tewtelly wanted excuse to go “yay” if I ever get here first… ;)

Do deer really make sounds? “Troat”?! according to list.

26 Aubrey 05.24.06 at 3:19 am

You never know, EC – should I ever come across a linguistically empowered cat, you can bet I’ll be saying kissar-kissar, mietz mietz, cic cic, etc. – whatever works!

27 Michele 05.24.06 at 3:25 am

Jaypo- do you remember in Princess Diaries when the hairstylist puts Anne Hathaway’s hair in this totally goofy ‘do, and shes all “I look. Like a moose!” so hes like “but a very cute moose! Make all the boy moose say ‘hwaaanh!’” so, that must be the English word for moose verbage. “Hwaaanh!”

28 alice 05.24.06 at 3:26 am

wow, the list is detailed – with camel sounds – I can’t say I’ve ever had the occasion to do that one. Or the sound of a crane.

29 Anita 05.24.06 at 3:28 am

“Come over here” works pretty well for my cat, but that’s only because he feels like it…. ;)

30 Nikki 05.24.06 at 4:04 am

my best friend’s mom says “CHAT” (cat in Franch) for “go away cat!”

31 AuntieMame 05.24.06 at 5:16 am

Somehow “pissy pissy” sounds so appropriate for a cat…

32 captainpotato 05.24.06 at 7:03 am

“Tapir noises!!

That’s what we need.

captainpotato, we dispatch you to investigate.”

I know very well how they sound, but writing it is another matter. Imagine a very high pitched “heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek” or “fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

33 captainpotato 05.24.06 at 7:04 am

“Tapir noises!!

That’s what we need.

captainpotato, we dispatch you to investigate.”

I know very well how they sound, but writing it is another matter. Imagine a very high pitched “heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek” or “fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

34 captainpotato 05.24.06 at 7:07 am

Damn double posts… CO doesn’t like Opera, it seems.

“Good to see something so worthwhile coming out of my old university. This may be humble Adelaide’s finest contribution to the world… Take a bow!”

Don’t forget Professor Mike Tyler, the world-renowned frog sniffer, who won an IgNobel award a few months ago.

35 alma 05.24.06 at 11:58 am

I had no idea us English speaking folks had a sound for camel nuzzing. “Grumph” LOL

36 A thinker 05.24.06 at 1:01 pm

Gosh, the tapir noises sound cute…

And Aubrey, you don’t need all those commands for “come here cat”–all you need is the Finger of Friendship, or whatever Theo called it.

Cats cannot resist sniffing a proffered finger that is just outside their reach. Keep moving it toward you, and you will trawl that cat in like a fish on a line.

Works every time.

37 mariser 05.24.06 at 1:19 pm

aahh, the FoF (Finger of Friendship). indeed, A thinker, your words are true. it does work everytime. I’ve seen cats following the FoF against their will, as if hypnotized.

38 AuntieMame 05.24.06 at 2:10 pm

Just make sure your reflexes are faster than the cat’s, or it may become the Finger of Lunch.

39 mariser 05.24.06 at 3:01 pm

AM,

“Finger of Lunch”
ya know, I *almost* spit water all over my keyboard. I can tewtally see some cat lunging at a poor soul’s extended finger.

40 ralph 05.24.06 at 3:05 pm

It’s missing from the chart, but English does have a word for go away dog: GIT.

41 dwine 05.24.06 at 3:39 pm

list is not entirely without errors though. I wonder how they obtained their data

42 megusmaximus 05.24.06 at 3:53 pm

ralph says: “It’s missing from the chart, but English does have a word for go away dog: GIT.”

That’s right – as in, “Gwan! Git!”

43 Aubrey 05.24.06 at 5:10 pm

Actually, I know of a cat who is fascinated by my feet, and will always keep me from walking by rolling over on first one, then the other foot. So I might possibly possess the Feet of Temptation.

44 A thinker 05.24.06 at 5:16 pm

I knew a cat who would continually follow you, right behind your feet, anytime you went outside (she was the neighbour’s cat). The only way to shake her was by walking in rapid little circles, and make your getaway when she stopped and looked around, confused.

45 mariser 05.24.06 at 7:09 pm

I am:

…trying to imagine A Thinker
“walking in rapid little circles”…
unable to. collapsing in floor from exhaustion/lack of imagination.

46 A thinker 05.24.06 at 7:18 pm

?!

not sure I get it.

but it made me laugh.

47 mariser 05.24.06 at 7:35 pm

I’m glad it made you laugh. is hard to explain why it is so hard for me to visualize, but I got a kick of the phrase .

48 A thinker 05.24.06 at 7:37 pm

:-D

49 Denise 05.24.06 at 7:49 pm

When I first started French in high school, one of the first things we learned was the French words for animal sounds. Kind of a funny thing to learn right up front, since it didn’t seem as useful as, say, “Where is the bathroom?” or “Fire!” I do remember there being fish on that list, though. I think it was “glou, glou.”

50 AuntieMame 05.24.06 at 8:18 pm

“Où est la salle de bain?”

“Vous avez un pomme de terre en votre chaussure.”

I remember that, but not how to say “Fire!”

51 A thinker 05.24.06 at 8:21 pm

“You have a potato in your…” ?

Feu! Feu!

52 A thinker 05.24.06 at 8:22 pm

Oh, *shoe*.

Yes, I can see that being an incredibly useful sentence. “Excuse me, sir…”

53 E. Collison 05.24.06 at 8:43 pm

“walking in rapid little circles, and make your getaway …”

I, too, thought this was hilarious.

54 Jen 05.24.06 at 9:55 pm

A little three-year-old taught me this cute little song about baby chickens. She learned it from her nanny, a native Spanish speaker. Cutest song ever!
“Los pollitos dicen
Pio pio pio
Cuando tienen hambre,
Cuando tienen frio…”

Also, I think my dove knows Spanish. I swear he says “cucurrucu” instead of “coo-coo”.

55 margaret 05.25.06 at 1:26 am

The three times i was in France, the kitties went MEENU, MEENU, unless the french people were just messing with me?

56 Bellgirl 05.26.06 at 5:29 am

I particularly like the fact that this is on the university of Adelaide’s SChool of Electrical and Electronic Engineering homepage. And did they get clearance from the Ethics Committee before interviewing all those animals?

57 aware 12.21.06 at 6:59 am

i really like the big crosslinguistic charts on the link you posted.

here’s another “sounds of the world’s animals” link, from a linguist. it includes sound files of the actual animal noises!!

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/animals/

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