How do dogs bark?

B

Boljon

Senior Member
Chinese
It'll be fun if we compare the onomatopoeic words for the barking of dogs in different languages.

ATTENTION: NOT the verb like "to bark", but the ONOMATOPOEIA like "bowwow".

Chinese: Wang1 Wang1
Japanese: Wang Wang
Korean: Meong Meong
 
    • In Hungarian: vau vau.

    I thought in English it was woof, woof...
    It also seems to me as if there was something like "bow wow", is that right?
     
    In German it's 'wau wau' - and smaller children, too, like to refer to the dog as 'der Wauwau'.

    This, phonetically, is very close to Italian 'bau bau', Arab ''aw 'aw' and others - the different phonetics and spellings of the different languages obscure, to a degree, similarities.
     
    In Esperanto dogs usually say either, "ŭa! ŭa!" or "boj! boj!" Of course, there aren't a lot of Esperanto-speaking dogs around :) There are Milu', who is Tinĉjo's little partner, and Snufiks, loyal companion of Asteriks...
     
    Boljon said:
    It'll be fun if we compare the onomatopoeic words for the barking of dogs in different languages.

    ATTENTION: NOT the verb like "to bark", but the ONOMATOPOEIA like "bowwow".

    Chinese: Wang1 Wang1
    Japanese: Wang Wang
    Korean: Meong Meong
    Click to expand...

    Japanese corrected by my humble person to ワン ワン[wan wan]
    By the way, how to say the verb like "to bark" itself (if it isn't offtopic)?
    In Czech: štěkat
    In Lithuanian: amsėti, loti[lo:ti]...
     
    Zsanna said:
    In Hungarian: vau vau.

    I thought in English it was woof, woof...
    It also seems to me as if there was something like "bow wow", is that right?
    Click to expand...
    You're right. It's "bow wow" and "woof woof".
    I have never heard of "Roof Roof".
     
    Russian: gav-gav (гав-гав), there is also the verb "gavkat'" (гавкать) which is emotionally charged along with more polite-neutral "layat" (лаять). For small lap dogs, it's "tyaff-tyaff" (тяф-тяф) with corresponding verb form "tafkat" (тявкать, тяфкать). All those forms can be used as derogatory for human talk to put someone down, as a comeback in a fight.

    "А ну не тяфкать!" === "shut up!"
    heard from a Russian drill sergeant: "Взвод закроет пасть или будет дальше гавкать?" - "You men is gonna keep yapping or shut your mothtraps up?"
     
    Funny, in English I have always spelled it "ruff ruff". Maybe there are two versions, one for Texans, and another for the rest of the English-speaking world :D :D!!

    There is also "arf arf".
     
    Thank you, Qcumber to have answered my question. I've never heard of "roof roof" either but it's interesting that there is apparently an American "version" of it (N°27).
    Now I'm really curious if in Scotland or Wales there is also "special" version...
     
    "To bark", in Persian, is "paars kardan" I'm not positive on this, but I think "woof-woof" translates to "wow-wow" in Persian.

    Also, "haapu" is the word Persian-speaking kids use for "doggie"
     
    As far as I know, in czech is also "Baf baf" but maybe the spelling is "Vaf, vaf". I'm not sure, but that said to me my teacher of czech (she is czech).
     
    When my neighbours quote my dog - a hyperactive Border Collie - they say she utters ghau ghau , the gh being the way the sound equivalent to the Spanish J is written in Galician, the language that we speak around here as well as Spanish.
     
    zalacain56 said:
    As far as I know, in czech is also "Baf baf" but maybe the spelling is "Vaf, vaf". I'm not sure, but that said to me my teacher of czech (she is czech).
    Click to expand...
    Yes, "Baf baf" might be used in imaginative literature, but it seems be not so common... In such words usually writing doesn't differ from pronunciation. I didn't yet hear "Vaf, vaf" saying in Czech. ;) .
    Most common is "Haf, haf" (IMHO).
     
    Hi,
    Abbassupreme said:
    "To bark", in Persian, is "paars kardan" I'm not positive on this, but I think "woof-woof" translates to "wow-wow" in Persian.
    Also, "haapu" is the word Persian-speaking kids use for "doggie"
    Click to expand...
    Paars and bark may be equal words.
    In Iran bark of dog: vagh vagh, hab hab, hap hap, ow ow.
    The sound of jackal and wolf: zuz, or zuzueh.
     
    To me the most interesting are the conclusions: what kind of sounds are used ? I am trying to add some temporary conclusions in bold below (so it might be interesting to focus on divergences from or corrections of those temporary conclusions):
    Starting on this collection I found in another thread ( information from wikipedia)
    I suggest some conclusions below :
    - bow-wow (or woof-woof) in English,
    - wau-wau in German,
    - uau-uau in Interlingua,
    - ouah-ouah in French,
    - gaf-gaf in Russian,
    - hav-hav in Hebrew,
    - wan-wan, bau-bau, or kyan-kyan in Japanese,
    - guau-guau in Spanish,
    - bau-bau in Italian,
    - vov-vov in Danish, woef woef [as English woof] or
    - waf waf in Dutch or woef-woef, if bigger
    - wou wou in Cantonese,
    - voff-voff in [[Icelandic language|Icelandic,
    - hau-hau in Finnish and Polish,
    - haf-haf in Czech, hav-hav (pronounced like English how-how) in Slovak,
    - guk guk in Indonesian, [is this a plosive ?]
    - bub bub in Catalan,
    - ghav-ghav in Modern Greek,
    - wou wou in Teso,
    - gâu gâu in Vietnamese and [plosive ?]
    - meong meong in Korean. [strange to me: m to start with ?]

    Some trends I seem to distinguish :
    - mostly fricatives to start with (is w fricative ?), seldom plosives
    - fricatives at the end or second part of diphthong (mostly sounding like w)
    - rather open vowels

    Correct ? But then why meong ? Any ideas ?
     
    You might know approximants by the name of "spirants". They are similar to fricatives, but are produced with less friction.

    P.S. It seems nobody mentioned the Portuguese onomatopoeia yet. I would say the most common are ão-ão and au-au. The two have similar pronunciations; they are composed of diphthongs. My initial guess was that they had originated in an alliteration of ua-ua (wa-wa), but then I saw the Finnish example hau-hau, and now I'm not so sure.
     
    I see, thanks. I must say: I studied phonetics when I was quite young (at 18-19), which is over 30 years ago, alas !

    Do you know any other types of consonants by the way ? Or do you know a website where I can find them ?
     
    Anyone having an idea of how you explain that there are both spirants and plosives at the beginning ? Is is perception (meaning one thinks s/he hears it, but ...) ? Eespecially the meong seems strange to me.
     
    ThomasK said:
    Just asking, KarL: is this /g/ a plosive ? And: what is the difference between the two (big and small dogs, /u/ referring to the bigger one ?) ?
    Click to expand...
    :eek: What is a plosive?

    I've never thought about it, but "guk-guk" is used more for small dogs, and "gong-gong" more for bigger dogs. But they're basically interchangeable.
    The verb "to bark" only have one form: gonggong.
     
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