If you hear a dog bark in Japan, Italy, Iceland or any other country, it will probably sound exactly the same as the dogs in Serbia who say “av”. But did you know that the words that onomatopoeically describe the sounds made by dogs and other pets are very different in almost every language?
If you’d like to learn what different pets sound like in different languages, you should read the rest of this text.
What does the dog say?
Given that different breeds of dogs are prevalent in different parts of the words, most languages use the noise made by the common breed in that region to commonly describe the noise made by dogs. In Iran, for example, golden retrievers are not that widespread, so it’s no wonder that their word for the dog’s bark doesn’t mimic the strong sound made by this breed. Instead, they use a gentle “haap”.
Here are some other words used in different languages to mimic the sound of a dog’s bark:
- Woof – Englang
- Gav Gav – Greece
- Gav – Russia
- Waouh – France
- Guau – Spain
- Blaf – Holland
- Wan – Japan
- Voff – Iceland
- Ham – Romania
- Bau – Italy
- Hev – Turkey
- Haap – Iraq
- Wong – China
- Mjau – Sweden
- Guk – Indonesia.
What does the cat say?
Things are a little different when it comes to cats. Most countries use very similar-sounding words to describe the cat’s meow:
- Mjau –Sweden
- Myau – Russia
- Meow – England
- Miau – Spain
- Meo – Vietnam
- Miao – Italy
- Miaou – France
- Yaong – Korea
- Nyan – Japan
- Nau – Estonia.
What do the birds say?
The interesting thing is that the sound of bird song is described very differently from country to country:
- Tweet – England
- Chun-Chun – Japan
- Pio-Pio – Spain
- Pip-Pip – Sweden
- Tjiep – Holland
- Jick-Jick – Turkey
- Chip – Italy
- Tsiou Tsiou – Greece.
Therefore, the variety of words used to describe pet onomatopoeias actually represent the uniqueness of different languages and regions. Cultural and linguistic differences are responsible for their origin, which make up the cultural wealth of each country and must be respected and preserved.
