the sounds of barks, gunshots etc

[mikeupover]

Hi everyone,

I've set myself a project to discover the ways different sounds familiar to us all are used in as many languages of the world as possible. I'm hoping some of you might be willing to lend a few minutes to help, and I'm sure you'll find it fun as well.

The sounds I am particularly interested in are:

1) laughing (e.g. in english it would be 'ha-ha')

2) gunshot (in english it would be 'bang')

3) baby's gurgle/ first sounds (in english it would be 'goo-goo' or 'ga-ga')

4) sneezes (in english it is 'at-choo')

5) dog's bark (in english it is 'woof')

6) cat (in english it is 'meow')

7) roooster in the morning (in english it is cock-a-doodle-doo)

Please, if you can spare a minute let me know. I am also interested in Cantonese versions of these sounds, as well as any other languages you might know. I hope to eventually publish a comprehensive list.

thanks very much,

mike lind

mikeupover@hotmail.com

[Quest]

I can provide the Cantonese versions

1) laughing -- ha ha / ka ka / ga ga

2) gunshot -- bahng bahng / piang piang

3) baby's gurgle/ first sounds -- nga nga

4) sneezes -- achi / hatchi / hutchi

5) dog's bark -- woe woe

6) cat -- meow meow/ miu miu

7) roooster -- gok gok..... gooooooooo

[39degN]

so, let me try the mandarin version just FYI:

1) laughing (哈哈haha 嘿嘿heihei 呵呵hehe 咯咯gege)

2) gunshot (砰peng 啪pa 噼里啪啦pi1-li1-pa1-la1)

3) baby's gurgle/ first sounds (咯咯gege maybe)

4) sneezes (啊欠 a-qian)

5) dog's bark (汪汪wang wang)

6) cat (喵喵 miao-miao)

7) rooster in the morning (喔喔 wo-wo)

[ala]

Shanghainese:

1) laughing (haha, hehe, palatalized hihi)

2) gunshot (pahn!, machine gun: gengengengen... )

3) baby's gurgle/ first sounds (guri guri, ng nga, nga nga, en'enjiji)

4) sneezes (attsei)

5) dog's bark (uahn uahn!)

6) cat (mia-wu)

7) rooster in the morning (gok..gok...kohhh)

some more off my head:

rain: tittat tittat

wet and dripping with water: tittit tattat

large object dropping: borondon, borok--don, bondon (deep voiced b, d of course)

explosion: bon

object dropping into water: purok--ton

small object dropping: pottok

turning on machine: kallattak

train: k'att'ak-k'att'ak---k'att'ak-k'att'ak

bell: tahn tahn tahn tahn

clock: tittak tittak

loud voice: wala wala

noise of slowly climbing up: gorok gorok

telephone: tierin tierin, tierinrin, tierinrinrin

voice of complaint: jilikulu.

crashing around: p'inlin p'ahnlahn

moving around large objects: jinlin gonron

continuously falling object: birik boro

book closing: p'ak

sucking water from straw: sollu sollu

yell: wala

thunder: honron (voiced h)

snow: shisshik sassak

knock door: tok tok tok

closing a large door: bin bahn

Shanghainese is a very onomatopoeia-based dialect. Tons of adjectives, adverbs, and adjectives come from onomatopoeia.

Typically, voiced initials (b, d, g) and vowel o, ahn, on refer to noises made by large object, and voiceless initials (p, t, k, p', t', k') with vowel -i and -a are for small objects.

I'll edit the post with Chinese characters when I get access to Chinese input.

[Quest]

interesting ala, a lot of those sounds have very similar equivalents in Cantonese.

rain: tittat tittat (dikdat dikdat)

wet and dripping with water: tittit tattat (dikdik datdat)

explosion: bon (bong)

clock: tittak tittak (dikdak dikdak)

voice of complaint: jilikulu. (ghili gulu)

crashing around: p'inlin p'ahnlahn (bingling bahnglahng)

moving around large objects: jinlin gonron (gingling guonglong)

continuously falling object: birik boro (biklik boklok /piklik paklak)

snow: shisshik sassak (sisi sasa)

closing a large door: bin bahn (bing bahng)