John Martz

A Roar By Any Other Name

Every child, even those that can’t string together a full sentence know at least one thing.  Cows go moo.  Sheep go ba-a-a.  Kitties go meeeeow.

At least they do if the animals in question speak English.  Sure, a Japanese frog may _sound_ like it’s saying, “ribbit ribbit!”, but it’s actually saying, “kerokero”.  Sounds of the World’s Animals is a pretty enjoyable collection of other examples.

In some cases, animals sound very much alike around the globe.  Cats the world over say meow, miaou, myau, meo-meo, and meu.

But other times they differ wildly.  Dogs can’t seem to make up their minds, and say woof, ham ham, gav, gonggong, wanwan, haf-haf, and voff, depending on where they live.

Particularly interesting is that in almost every language except English, a rooster makes some form of “kukuriku” noise.  Where the hell did we English speakers get the “doodle” from?

Speakers of English—put your doodles away!