ONOMATOPOEIA

Don’t ask me why, today, while talking to an American friend, I suddenly sneezed and then thought: “I wonder how people sound like when they sneeze in English”. In French, we say “atchoum”… Of course, once this big issue raised, I had to investigate. Well, I found a few things, among which is this table about animal language… This is what we can actually read in comics according to our own language.

Animal Sound	English	French	German	Spanish
Bee droning	buzz/bzzz	bzzz	summ summ	bzzz
Bird (small)	cheep/chirp/chirrup/peep		piep piep
Bird (medium)	cheep cheep/tweet	cui cui	tschiwitt	pío pío
Bird (big)	squawk
Bird (many birds)	warble/twitter
Camel nuzzing	grumph
Cat mewing	meow	miaou	miau	miao
Cat purring	purr	ronron	srr	rrr
Chaffinch	pink
Chicken (hen) clucking	cluck cluck	cotcotcodet	tock tock	caca-racá/cocorocó/
Rooster (cock) crowing	cock-a-doodle-doo	cocorico	kikeriki	quiquiriquí/kikiriki
Chick (baby chicken)	cheep/peep	piou piou	piep piep	pi-pi
Cow lowing	moo	meuh	mmuuh	muuu/meee
Cow/Bull (angry) snorting	snort			buff
Crane	clang
Crocodile (biting)	snap	clap	klap	clap/clack
Crow cawing	kaak/caw	croa croa	kräh kräh	ah ah
Cuckoo	cuckoo	coucou	kuckuck	cu-cu
Deer	troat
Donkey braying	hee haw/eeyore	hihan	iaah iaah	iha iha/ji-jo
Dog barking (small dog)	yap yap/arf arf	ouah ouah (in a high voice)	wau wau (in a high voice)	guau/gua
Dog barking (medium dog)	woof woof/ruff ruff	ouah ouah	wau wau	guav
Dog barking (big dog)	bow wow	ouah ouah (in a low voice)	wuff wuff	guf guf
Dog (biting)	gnash/snap			chac
Dog (gnawing bone)	chomp/chump/gnaw		chrong
Dog (angry)	grrr/snarl/growl	grrr	grrr	grrr
Dog (crying)	whine/whimper		juhhh
Dog (panting)	pant pant		cha-cha	eh eh eh
Dog (distressed)	yelp/yip/howl/yowl		juhhh	auu
Dog (drinking)	lap lap		schlapp schlapp	blap blap
Dove crooding	coo	rou rou	guru guru	gu gu/cucurrucu
Duck gabbing	quack quack	coin coin	quack quack	cua cua
Elephant trumpeting	baraag		toerroe	biaaah
Frog	croak/ribbit (USA)	croa croa	quaak quaak	croac croac
Goat bleating	naa	bêê	maehh maehh	beee
Goose cackling	honk		gak gak
Horse neighing	neigh
Horse shuddering	brrr		brrr
Horse whinnying	wehee	hiiiii	wihiie	ihiii
Horse (hoof sound)	clip clop	clip clop	klip klap	cotocloc
Lion roaring	raa/grr/roar	raoh	grr	grr
Moose
Mouse squeeking	eek		piep piep	iiik
Owl hooting	twit twoo/hoo hoo/whit woo/terwit terwoo	hou hou	uhu/huuh huuh	uhh uhh
Ox lowing	boo/booh	meuh
Parrot	pretty Polly/Who’s a pretty boy?	coco	Lora Lora	lorito lorito
Pig grunting	oink	groin groin	grunz	oink/oinc
Pig squealing	wee wee		quiek	iiih/uiii/cuiii
Pigeon cooing	coo	rou rou	guru guru	ruú-ruú/cucurrocu
Raven croaking	caw	croâ croâ	kra-kra
Sheep bleating	baa	bêê	baehh baehh	beee beee
Snake hissing	sss	sss	sss	sss
Sparrow
Tiger roaring	raa/grr	grr	grr	grrr
Turkey (male cock)	gobble gobble	glou glou		clou clou/goro-goro-goro (Mexico)
Turkey (female hen)	yelp
Wolf howling	owooooo	ooouh	huh	auuuh
Woodcock	peent

Here are a few links that might help you if you are interested in the subject:

-Small dictionnary of comic onomatopoeia (for French people)

http://www.dr-belair.com/dic/Entertainment/Onomatopoeias/dc-onomatopoeias.htm

-Onomatopoeia in wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia

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