What do animals sound like in different languages?

[Gray Richardson]

When I have travelled to other countries, I am often surprised when locals correct me for calling to animals using my native tongue. I was told in Switzerland that a cat will not understand my saying "here kitty-kitty" and they insisted I instead say "bis-bis-bis" or "mouche-mouche" or the Swiss cats would not understand me. Likewise, I learned they call to cows by saying "velo, velo, velo..."

Likewise, different languages have different words for the sounds that animals make.

Here is a nifty illustration that shows what dogs, cats, bees, mice, pigs, frogs, lions, birds, ducks, and roosters say in various different languages:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/what- ... e-is-an-im

Also, I found this chart which has quite a few more animals and quite a few more languages indexed:
http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/pers ... nimal.html

[vec]

In Iceland we call cats using "kis kis kis" or "ks ks". American cats don't understand this and just ignore you.

[Drydic]

I am skeptical that Icelandic cats are any more likely to be callable in any vocal way than american cats.

[vec]

They'll at least look up to "ks ks" in Iceland. In America, not at all.

[Copperknickers]

In the UK at least, people call cats in various different ways. They usually understand if you want to attract them, its the tone of voice that attracts them not the words.

[2+3 clusivity]

Here is a nifty illustration that shows what dogs, cats, bees, mice, pigs, frogs, lions, birds, ducks, and roosters say in various different languages . . .

Is this an elaborate ploy to introduce,

But there's one sound. That no one knows. What does the fox say?

On a more serious note, if orthography was controlled for, I would imagine many of the different spellings of common animal's sounds would be similar.

[Qwynegold]

When I have travelled to other countries, I am often surprised when locals correct me for calling to animals using my native tongue. I was told in Switzerland that a cat will not understand my saying "here kitty-kitty" and they insisted I instead say "bis-bis-bis" or "mouche-mouche" or the Swiss cats would not understand me. Likewise, I learned they call to cows by saying "velo, velo, velo..."

Likewise, different languages have different words for the sounds that animals make.

Here is a nifty illustration that shows what dogs, cats, bees, mice, pigs, frogs, lions, birds, ducks, and roosters say in various different languages:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/what- ... e-is-an-im

Also, I found this chart which has quite a few more animals and quite a few more languages indexed:
http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/pers ... nimal.html

Ah, we've had this discussion before. But both of those links are completely wrong for Finnish and Swedish. :/ There's a Wikipedia page too, but now I can't find it.

[Ser]

If anything, those images prove of the richness of onomatopoeia that can be found in English (and Japanese, which also appears in almost every image), as I was pointing out the other day on the IRC. It's not (only) that they didn't find a translation for onomatopoeia like "ribbit" for frogs, "quack" for ducks, etc., in an English-Spanish dictionary----I, as a native Spanish speaker, cannot think of onomatopoeia for such sounds either.

Also, cats respond to "mish-mish" [ˈmiʃ ˈmiʃ] in El Salvador.

[WechtleinUns]

Birds in english don't say Tweet. They say Chirp.

Or at least, they did when I was younger. Don't know about today, with Twitter, and shit. Also, what do foxes sound like? I don't think I've ever heard one vocalize.

[KathTheDragon]

I've thought of foxes as saying 'yip' for quite some years now. Not sure why...

[pharazon]

In Iceland we call cats using "kis kis kis" or "ks ks". American cats don't understand this and just ignore you.

I dunno, Americans sometimes use "ps ps" for that.

[Chagen]

Birds in english don't say Tweet. They say Chirp.

Or at least, they did when I was younger. Don't know about today, with Twitter, and shit. Also, what do foxes sound like? I don't think I've ever heard one vocalize.

Well, if we want to believe furries, they yell "yiff" when mating.

[Yng]

probably because that's at least one of the accepted onomatopoeias for them? I mean they have a high-pitched bark like certain kinds of dog who I would also describe as 'yipping'.

In Arabic I only know معمع which is what sheep and goats say (maʕmaʕ). Same in Persian, where it is maʔmaʔ~maːmaː. I'll see if I can find the list of onomatopoeias I got from my Syrian friend. In Welsh sheep go /maː/ or /mɛː/ depending on your dialect.

[finlay]

Birds in english don't say Tweet. They say Chirp.

Or at least, they did when I was younger. Don't know about today, with Twitter, and shit. Also, what do foxes sound like? I don't think I've ever heard one vocalize.

I just saw a video - it sounds like a whiny meow.

[Soap]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aT8TWFxmEI is one of the sounds a fox can make

mny sister used to call the cats with what i think is an alveolar click. basically the same as "tsk tsk tsk" but with different tone of voice and facial experessions.

[KathTheDragon]

I used to call to my cat by making a noise by pressing my lower lip against my upper teeth, pressing down with my lower lip, making a small gap, and sucking inwards. No idea how you'd describe that linguisticly, but it's probably labio-dental.

[finlay]

labiodental click with quite a lot of frication. since it's not a linguistic (=used in a language) sound it doesn't have an ipa symbol (the ipa is pragmatic like that, if there's no need for a symbol they don't have one).

[gmalivuk]

On a more serious note, if orthography was controlled for, I would imagine many of the different spellings of common animal's sounds would be similar.

To hear people say the sounds in their languages, I don't think this is true for any animal except cats, which for some reason seem to have "mao" or "miao" sounds in pretty much every language.

[Hydroeccentricity]

At least for North American cats, your best bet is a quiet, high pitched dental click. Labialization optional.

[Mornche Geddick]

I was not aware that the elephant said baraag in my native tongue!

[ObsequiousNewt]

At least for North American cats, your best bet is a quiet, high pitched dental click. Labialization optional.

I tend to use an alveolar click, slightly labialized. (Midwest US)

[Yng]

Snakes go /faħː/, cows go /xwaːr/, cats go /mwa:ʔ/. Wolves say /ʕwaːʔ/. 'Bray' and 'whinny' are /mba:ħ/ and /sˠahiːl/ respectively, but I don't know if these are onomatopoeias per se. Horses can also say /ħamħam/.

[Genome]

In my current project cats say ŋy, but you call them with a bird noise standardized as twitwi.

[din]

The pictures, though really cute, aren't correct about Dutch dogs. Our dogs indeed 'blaf' (bark), but the onomatopea is 'woef' (pronounced like English woof).

[ol bofosh]

Not animals sounds, but when I call my cats it's with a very labialised alveolar click, but my girlfriend uses "ps ps ps". She tried to convince me that hers was the best way, but it never came naturally to me. And my cats still respond anyway, so...

In Spanish, dogs guau and cats miau.