Viral

This is how animals speak in different languages

This is how animals speak in different languages
This is how animals speak in different languages
Gocompare.com

We all know a dog says woof and a cat says meow, right?

Well, actually wrong.

While animals may make the same physical noises around the world, the way in which humans interpret and mimic them can differ drastically from country to country.

There are only a handful of studies into international animal onomatopoeia and leading research professor Derek Abbott from the University of Adelaide says the area suffers from “academic neglect”.

He said: “The English honk for a goose and gobble gobble for a turkey are rather odd in comparison to other languages (they glou glou in French and Greek and glu glu in Turkish).

“Also for a generic large bird we say squawk – but when interviewing people from other countries I usually get a blank stare when I ask them if they have an equivalent to squawk.”

Abbott explained in his latest study that there's still much to be understood about why animal sounds express themselves in different ways around the world.

Now, new interactive project by GoCompare called Straight from the Horse’s Mouth lets you find out just how animals speak in different languages.

According to the site, a duck might say “quack” in English, but it says “ga ga” in Japanese.

And a mouse says "piep piep" in German, "squit squit" in Italian and "pi-pi-pi" in Russian

The Conversation (0)
x