In Sweden the pig goes nöff-nöff: animaltopoeias we have known

wfgodot · Nov 18, 2014

Why do pigs oink in English, boo boo in Japanese, and nöff-nöff in Swedish? (Guardian)
It’s not just pigs, the onomatopoeia we apply to most animal sounds varies delightfully
across different tongues. What does this reveal about our relationship with language?

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Multilingual onomatopoeia is very human – it says far less about the animals than it does about us. When you consider we’re hearing the exact same sound but producing different representations of that sound, it reveals how malleable we’ve made our different tongues. Exploring these sounds makes us see the familiar and juvenile with renewed, fresh intrigue as adults. And to that, I say evviva in Italian, valio in Lithuanian, mabuhay in Filipino – or simply hurrah in English.

the rest at link above

mabuhay! hov hov!

wfgodot · Nov 18, 2014

[video=youtu;jofNR_WkoCE]http://youtu.be/jofNR_WkoCE?list=RDjofNR_WkoCE[/video]

Snoofo · Nov 18, 2014

Onomatopoeia. I love that word. And I love that I didn't need to look it up.

wfgodot · Nov 19, 2014

Snoofo said:
Onomatopoeia. I love that word. And I love that I didn't need to look it up.

I hear ya. I remember when -- probably in about ninth grade -- I learned, in addition to meaning and pronunciation, how to spell it too. (Got similar 'cool beans' thrill in the same time frame doing likewise with Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.)

In Sweden the pig goes nöff-nöff: animaltopoeias we have known

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