Study reveals how countries interpret dog, cat sounds
MANILA, Philippines — Language can be tricky but also interesting because of the differences and similarities many share around the world — now picture that for our favorite furry friends.
Humans interpret animal sounds based on one's native language, even if we're hearing the same thing.
An example is English-speakers think a rooster's crow is "cock-a-doodle-doo" while in Filipino, it's "tiktilaok." Another is pig sounds are "oink" in English, but in Japan, it's "boo boo" and in Sweden, it's "nöff-nöff."
As such, word game search engine WordTips looked at the various translations for the sounds of dogs and cats — arguably the most popular pets — based on each country's most spoken language through language resources and dictionary entries.
The online assistant found there are at least 40 interpretations of a dog's bark, with 22 countries think dogs make a "hau hau" or "how how" sound. In contrast, 13 English-language countries hear a dog's bark as "woof woof."
Related: 'Petfluencer' among over 300 new words added to Dictionary.com
In the Philippines, dogs are said to make an "aw aw" sound, mostly similar to the "au au" sound heard in Portuguese-language countries like Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and of course Portugal.
Some distinct dog sounds across languages are the "wang wang" in Mandarin, "meong meong" in Korean, "oaf oaf" in French, "guau guau" in Spanish, and "bau bau" in Italian.
Meanwhile, an overwhelming majority of cat sounds begin with the letter "M," the most basic of these being "meow" in English-language countries and "miau" in both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries.
There are derivations of "meow/miau" like "miaou" in French and German, "miao" in Italian, "myau" in Russian, "miyau" in Hebrew, and "mjaw" or "mjau" in several European countries.
The Philippines is one of the few countries that stand out as Filipinos hear cats say "ngiyaw," which is mostly similar to the Malay "ngiau" and Greek "niaou."
The Japanese "nyaa," the Cambodian "naav-naav," the Ukrainian "niav," and the Burmese "nyaung" are the other cat sounds beginning in "N," while Koreans hear "yaong."
