Let's Make Some Noise Learning the sounds animals make is an essential part of language learning Spending hours and hours pretending you're a chicken or a dog is not only great fun it's educational too If you grew up speaking English you probably already know your woofs and meows from your clucks and quacks but how does the rest of the world describe sounds IN JAPANESE CATS DON'T GO MEOW IN GERMAN PIGS DON'T GO OINK IN HINDI FROGS DON'T GO RIBBIT NYAN GRUNZ TARR A There's a whole world of words for all the sounds you know and love And even some words for sounds that don't show up in English The words that imitate sounds are known as Onomatopoeia These words are a wonderfully strange and interesting part of language After all we hear the same sounds but we interpret and write them differently in different languages
If you sing Old McDonald Had a Farm in French your farmyard ducks go coin coin instead of quack quack and in Russian they go krya krya From the sound of a speeding car to the sound a dog makes to the sound of rain there are almost as many words for these sounds as there are languages Early Beginnings Many linguists the people who study language believed that onomatopoeic words partly explain how early humans began communicating and may hold the key to the origin of language itself There are a few nicknames for these theories The Bow Wow Theory Language first came about from imitating animal noises like barking dogs and bird song The Pooh Pooh Theory Language evolved from imitating natural human sounds like crying babies and laughter The Ding Dong Theory Language began by imitating sounds in nature like thunder or the wind sure No one knows for certain how language first came about but one thing is for onomatopoeias are a fascinating part of how we understand the world and each other Come and join us as we learn more about these sounds all around
Bon Voyage This book is going to take us on a journey around the world to learn about the different ways people describe sounds We'll look at fireworks heartbeats clocks lions thunder even the sound of brushing your teeth But who will take us on this noisy journey We'll need an expert to guide us along the way PLEASED TO MEET YOU I HEARD YOU WANTED TO SOUND LIKE A FINNISH GHOST DON'T WORRY I KNOW A THING OR TWO ABOUT A THING OR TWO YOU CAN COUNT ON ME D
