{"id":1686,"date":"2014-02-03T07:32:01","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T12:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:29:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:29:55","slug":"heehaw-or-eeyore-onomatopoeias-in-foreign-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2014\/02\/03\/heehaw-or-eeyore-onomatopoeias-in-foreign-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Heehaw or Eeyore: Onomatopoeias in Foreign Languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHAM!<\/em> One of my favorite aspects of a language is onomatopoeia\u2014the words assigned to specific sounds, like the woof woof<\/em> of your childhood dog, or the vroom vroom<\/em> of a new car.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason onomatopoeic words differ among languages is the availability of sounds in each language. A diving bird obviously can\u2019t make a woosh<\/em> in a language without a \u201csh\u201d sound. But sometimes, it\u2019s just the ear of the beholder. An American donkey might say hee-haw<\/em>, a British donkey would make more of an eeyore<\/em> sound. (For those of you who ever wondered where Eeyore got his name, you\u2019re welcome!)<\/p>\n

Have some fun exploring the list below of unfamiliar onomatopoeias for familiar sounds, and be sure to add to the list in the comments!<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Taatuutaatuu! (Dutch)<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b>An American ambulance might say wee woo wee woo<\/em>, but a Dutch ambulance siren wails out taatuu taatuu<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\"Ambulance1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a02.<\/strong>\u00a0Pachi pachi! <\/b>\u30d1\u30c1\u30d1\u30c1 (Japanese)<\/b><\/p>\n

You may be used to roasting marshmallows over a fire that crackles<\/em>, but a Japanese fire would sound more like pachi pachi<\/em> (\u30d1\u30c1\u30d1\u30c1).<\/p>\n

\"fire1\"<\/a>3.\u00a0<\/b>Chicchirich\u00ed! (Italian)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0Ever been woken up to the untimely cockadoodledooooo<\/em>! of a rooster? If you were in Italy, that rooster was actually saying chicchirich\u00ed<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\"rooster1\"<\/a>4. Ko ack ack ack! (Swedish)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0If Kermit the frog were Swedish, he\u2019d be more likely to croak ko ack ack ack<\/em> than ribbit ribbit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"frog1\"<\/a>5. Schluck (German)<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0You may gulp\u00a0<\/i>down some water on a hot day, but all the Germans will hear is schluck schluck schluck<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\"gulp1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

6. \u00a1Cataplum! (Spanish)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Black Eyed Peas may sing\u00a0boom boom pow<\/em>, but to Spanish speakers, explosions sound more like\u00a0\u00a1Cataplum!<\/em>\u00a0\"explosion1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, if only we could figure out what the fox says\u2026 \u00a0What are some of your favorite onomatopoeias in other languages?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

WHAM! One of my favorite aspects of a language is onomatopoeia\u2014the words assigned to specific sounds, like the woof woof of your childhood dog, or the vroom vroom of a new car. Part of the reason onomatopoeic words differ among languages is the availability of sounds in each language. A diving bird obviously can\u2019t make…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":1692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[542801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1686","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1686"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}