Barking (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Barking
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20 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

mrwarper
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Message 17 of 20

11 January 2012 at 9:02pm | IP Logged

@WentworthsGal: you've "seen". But do all of those sound the same? In other words, is Cat English spelling as crazy as Human English, or are they different dialects? :)

hrhenry wrote:

Interestingly enough, in some Caribbean Spanish, "guagua" means "colectivo" (a sort of minibus)

It does in Spanish Spanish too, but only in the Canary Islands.

Quote:

and, while confirming this before posting, I learned it can also mean "baby" or "infant" in Chilean Spanish.

R.
==

Actually it makes sense because 'guaaa' is also the onomatopoeia for a baby's crying (usually 'buaaa' in Spain). I would have thought the term was not appropriate for use by adults, though.

Interestingly enough, I'd never have thought of any of those other meanings of 'guagua' in connection with the barking -- I mean, at the same time.

Edited by mrwarper on 12 January 2012 at 11:38am
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meramarina
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Message 18 of 20

11 January 2012 at 9:18pm | IP Logged

I knew there was a name for this, and looked it up: Cross-linguistic onomatopoeia. I can't imagine why I wasn't able to remember that simple little word! But anyway, as per Wikipedia, here are dog sounds, and you can read a fuller and much funnier range of interesting sounds as they are represented in various languages here

Dog barking

In Albanian, ham ham
In Arabic, haw haw, hab hab
In Batak, kung-kung
In Bengali: gheu gheu ঘেউ ঘেউ, bheu bheu ভেউ ভেউ, bhou bhou ভউ ভউ
In Brazilian portuguese: au au
In Bulgarian, bow bow бау бау, djaff djaff джаф джаф
In Catalan, bup bup
In Chinese, Cantonese, wōu-wōu 㕵㕵
In Chinese, Mandarin, wāng wāng 汪汪[zho 14]
In Czech, haf haf
In Danish, vuf vuf, vov vov, bjæf bjæf
In Dutch, waf waf, woef woef
In English, woof woof, arf arf, bow wow, bark bark, ruff ruff, roof roof
In Estonian, auh auh
In Finnish hau hau, vuh vuh
In French, ouaf ouaf, wouf wouf
In German, wau wau, waff waff, wuff wuff'
In Greek, ghav ghav γαβ γαβ, woof
In Hebrew, hav hav הַב־הַב,[heb 4] haw haw הַאוּ־הַאוּ[heb 4]
In Hindi, bow bow
In Hungarian vau vau
In Icelandic, voff voff
In Indonesian, guk guk
In Italian, bau bau
In Japanese, ワンワン (wan wan)
In Kannada, bow bow
In Korean, meong meong 멍멍
In Latgalian, vau vau
In Lithuanian, au au
In Macedonian, av av ав ав, dzhav dzhav џав џав
In Malayalam, bau bau
In Norwegian voff voff
In Polish, hau hau
In Portuguese, au au, ão ão, béu béu
In Romanian, ham ham
In Russian, gav gav (гав-гав), tyaf tyaf тяф-тяф
In Sinhalese, buh buh බුඃ බුඃ
In Slovene, hov hov
In Spanish, guau guau
In Swedish, vov vov, voff voff
In Tagalog, aw aw
In Tamil, vovw-vovw லொள் லொள், loll-loll, vazh vazh
In Telugu, bau bau
In Thai, hong hong ฮ่ง ฮ่ง, "bok bok" บ๊อก บ๊อก
In Turkish, hav hav
In Vietnamese, gâu gâu

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mrwarper
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Message 19 of 20

12 January 2012 at 12:33am | IP Logged

One quick question: just why exactly do we all keep repeting every single one of these things twice, all the time? It really doesn't seem that hard to learn :)
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Brun Ugle
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Message 20 of 20

12 January 2012 at 10:05am | IP Logged

Actually in English the sounds don't have to be repeated. Dogs can also be said to just say woof or arf. Bow wow has to have both syllables though, otherwise it would sound very strange, especially since each syllable is also an ordinary English word by itself.

Of course, in truth, dogs rarely settle for just saying "woof woof." Usually it's more like "woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof woof .........." all night long. But I think that would be a bit too tedious for most humans to say, so we usually just cut it down to "woof woof."

As for the sounds of cats in English, I believe meow and miao are both the same sound, but mew is different. Mew is the tiny soft sound of a kitten or a soft-spoken cat. Meow is more like the sound of a confident cat who knows who he is and what he wants and isn't afraid to say it.

I do like dogs, but I prefer cats. Dogs tend to be rather impolite in my opinion, whereas cats are generally more refined. Cats also usually smell better.

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