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
ANIMALS NOISES
Animal sounds are the perfect place to start this onomatopoeic journey Of course it's common to learn the noises of cats and dogs growing up every language has their own version of these but some languages have animal sounds that are a little more obscure In Japan foxes are a big KON KON part of their culture and some religions so naturally they've been given their own special sound Turtles get in on the action too japanese MU There's a sound for hamsters in Latvian japanese and even a word in Korean for the sound of rabbits hopping KKANGCHONG korean PIKST Latvian The world is full of different words for sounds and all that international variety gives us a load of alternatives you might never have seen before Let's see how they compare to the ones you grew up with
