As it turns out, animals make different noises in Spanish. This isn't true of all creatures - a cat still meows (miau) and a cow still moos (muu). There are a few notable and entertaining exceptions, however:
| Spanish | English | |
| Rooster | ki-kiri-ki | cock-a-doodle-doo |
| Horse | jiiiii or iiiuo | nnnneigh |
| Sheep | beee (pronounced "bay") | baaah |
| Turkey | gluglú | gobble gobble |
| Dog | guau guau | arf, ruf, bow-wow |
| Chick | pío pío | cheep, peep |
I realized this through a discussion with some Mexican friends about how ridiculous the noise "cock-a-doodle-doo" is for a rooster. My other English-speaking friend was defending the noise - although in the end I think ki-kiri-ki might be a bit more accurate.
If you know of any other interesting noises (or if I'm wrong about any of these), please post in the comments.
2 comments:
Hi Emily
As a fellow mta IR grad, I stumbled across your site one day, maybe through the mta website, I'm not quite sure. I just wanted to say that I'm quite enjoying reading it, especially as I'm also in Mexico myself (working as an editor just outside of Texcoco) and experiencing many of the same events and cultural discoveries. It's interesting to read how similar the scenarios are in different parts of the country (i.e. the open-air chicken)! Anyway... keep up the great posts!
Jen Jones
When I taught animals and felt like making a food of myself, I made animal noises for my kids. Of note, they loved my horse whinny.
Japanese noises:
pig-buu buu
lion- gao gao
horse- heen heen
cow- mou mou
cat- nyao
dog- wan wan
bird- piyo piyo
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