Apples for Health- Animal Sounds Revisited

Animal Sounds Revisited

(Author's note: Emil Sveilis, who currently works at ROKO Intermodal Ltd., in Riga, Latvia, is a fan of UPI's Animal Tales and never misses it every Friday. Sveilis worked for United Press International from 1964 to 1981 in Washington, New York, Montreal, Stockholm, Leningrad and Philadelphia. In 1967, while working in Washington, Sveilis wrote the following piece, which we are calling "Animal sounds revisited." Many things have changed since then, including Czechoslovakia splitting into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But the way people perceive animal sounds seems the same. --AC)

"Hey, Rover, come here, old boy," cries his proud little owner. Rover, tail wagging, runs up to his master, licks his hand, and barks, "wang-wang."

Are you kidding? There isn't a dog in the world that barks "wang-wang."

But there is.

Rover's master is a Japanese boy and in his mind the dog is also Japanese. So in Japan, when dogs bark, they don't say "arf-arf" or "bow-wow," but "wang-wang."

Everyone in the world assumes barnyard animals, when they moo, bark, or grunt, make that sound in the local language.

But what might be a normal "quack-quack" of a duck in English, might not be so in Czechoslovakia.

The Czech embassy in Washington, D.C., and six other embassies, provided United Press International with the their animal sounds.

Wallowing through the pasture, a Czech duck puts out a noise, which sounds something like "taj-taj."

As the tourist wanders around the barnyard, he comes to a pigsty. Now, any red-blooded American child can tell you that a pig goes "oink-oink." But there again there is a difference of opinion between the East and the West.

"You are wrong," shouts the Czech youth. "Pigs say 'chr-chr.'"

In Thailand they have may have militant chickens. As they sit perched on an egg, they cackle "atak-atak."

Besides having militant chickens, Thailand also has talkative ducks. They "gab-gab-gab" all day long. The French duck goes "coin-coin" and in Spain it's "cua-cua."

Chickens in France are calmer, but windier. Their morning greeting is "cot-cot-cot-codi," and in Germany they say "meek-meek-meek."

The chicken's mate, the rooster, is more bilingual and sounds much alike in most languages, except English.

The English "cock-a-doodle-doo" turns into "kiquerique" in Spanish, "kuckeliku" in Swedish, "cocorico" in French, "kikeriki" in Czech and "kokekoko" in Japanese.

Back to man's best friend, the dog. Pierre's Rover, running through the French countryside, shows his happiness or anger by saying "oau-oau."

But, Jose's Rover in Argentina says "guau-guau," and Hans' German shepherd cries out in the Bavarian Alps: "wau-wau."

Worldwide, cats make a similar noise to the English "meow." So do sheep with their "baa."

"Enof-enof," says the Swedish pig.